Slouka's "War of the Worlds" (trashing of computers)

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 6:53 PM 8/8/95, John Young wrote:
>   8-8-95. NYPaper:
>
>
>   "War of the Worlds: Cyberspace and the High-Tech Assault on
>   Reality." [Book review]
>
>      Ominous signs already exist, says the scholar Mark
>      Slouka that virtual reality has begun to replace real
>      life -- or "R.L.," as it is dismissively referred to by
>      computer freaks. Even those poor benighted folks who
>      have yet to enter the computer age appear to have
>      started down "the road to unreality," says Mr. Slouka:
>      PONA's (or "persons of no account," as they're known on

[rest elided]

I found this book several days ago in a local bookstore and sat down on the
floor to read (most of) it. It's one of those thin, 130-page-or-so books,
about the length of what many of us can write in a few days. (I'm not
claiming our stuff is as publishable, just that the publishing industry
seems to love being able to charge $25 for a hardback book of 30,000 words!
The imminent death of conventional publishing predicted!)

Yet more bashing of computers. I found nothing insightful in this book,
just a personal account of the author's struggle to understand why so many
of his friends are using computers so much.

Bashing the cybernetic aspects of our culture is hot these days. I expect
Oprah and Sally Jesse to soon be doing shows on this. Children whose
mothers are Net addicts, brothers who kill their sisters for using "vi,"
and jilted cyberlovers who are in relationships with their shrinkwraps.

--Tim May


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