The Hopes and Fears that Shape New Technologies

edited by Marita Sturken, Douglas Thomas and Sandra Ball-Rokeach

"Telescreens. Virtual communities. Wired cities. Information societies. The World Wide Web. Concepts like these can underpin a movement for or against a technical feasibility. This book is for anyone interested in the social shaping of the history and future of information and communication technologies and their societal implications."

-Professor William H. Dutton, Director Oxford Internet Institute

For as long as people have developed new technologies, there has been debate over the purposes, shape, and potential for their use. In this exciting collection, a range of contributors, including Sherry Turkle, Lynn Spigel, John Perry Barlow, Langdon Winner, David Nye, and Lord Asa Briggs, discuss the visions that have shaped "new" technologies and the cultural implications of technological adaptation. Focusing on issues such as the nature of prediction, community, citizenship, consumption, and the nation, as well as the metaphors that have shaped public debates about technology, the authors examine innovations past and present, from the telegraph and the portable television to the Internet, to better understand how our visions and imagination have shaped the meaning and use of technology.