The pearly gates of cyberspace : a history of space from Dante to the Internet

Tracing the combined story of physical and spiritual space from the Middle Ages to the present, Wertheim reveals the appeal of cyberspace and its ultimate failure to satisfy one's spiritual needs. The author argues that cyberspace has in recent years become a repository for immense spiritual yearning. Seeking to understand this phenomenon, she traces the evolution of our conception of space from the medieval to the modern viewpoint and explores how our conception of our spatial scheme has radically altered over the years. She then brings science and theology together, showing that the spiritualizing of cyberspace fits into a long history of imagined spaces and may be seen as an attempt to realize a technological version of the Christian space of heaven The Internet may seem an unlikely gateway for the soul but, as Margaret Wertheim argues in this imaginative book, cyberspace has in recent years become a repository for immense spiritual yearning. The perfect realm awaits, we are told, not behind the pearly gates but behind electronic gateways labeled ".com" and ".net.". Seeking to understand this mapping of spiritual desire onto digitized space, Wertheim takes us on an astonishing historical journey, tracing the evolution of our conception of space from the Middle Ages to today. Beginning with the cosmology of Dante, we see how the medievals saw themselves embedded in both physical space and spiritual space. With the rise of modern science, however, space came to be seen in purely physical terms - with spiritual space written out of the realm of reality. Within this context, Wertheim suggests that cyberspace returns us to an almost medieval position: Once again we have a physical space for body and an immaterial space that many people hope will be a new space for soul. By linking the science of space to the wider cultural and religious milieu, Wertheim shows that the spiritualizing of cyberspace fits into a long history of imagined spaces. In particular, it may be seen as an attempt to realize a technological version of the Christian space of heaven. Halfway along the journey of his life, the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri set out on what has become the most famous journey of the Middle Ages: a trip to the end of the universe and back. The author of Pythagoras' Trousers explores the changing concepts of both physical space and spiritual space from the Middle Ages to the present day. Margaret Wertheim. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 309-322) And Index.