The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet

Rating:
Summary: Pearly Gates of Cyberspace full of fuzzy thinking
Review: Even if the world needed a book on this theme, this is not the one!

One thread of this book is the notion of collision between scientific thinking and theology--a collision which in my view is not forced by anything observable or reasonably thinkable.

In early chapters, the author makes dogmatic statements about what was on the minds of numerous famous authors--statements for which no justification is given, and for thoughts which arguably have milder and more flattering interpretations: e.g., that Dante and other mediaevals took a certain spatial view of heaven and hell literally. In this case, the milder interpretation might recognize that writing anything likely to offend certain Churchmen risked persecution--so that what authors expressed might often left out subtle and careful thinking.

The chapters on what's going on since the mid-1980's read like a journalist's hasty pastiche of things written and thought by others, with little acknowledgement and even less discernable new thought.

However, my main objection is that this author has set up a flimsy strawman to knock down with many words, viz., that the coincidence of the syllable "space" in "cyberspace" implies a serious analogy to metric spaces. This analogy might play a roll in hoi poloi minds, but that Wertheim's middle chapters talk of the work of several well-known scientists seems to imply that serious scientists take such an analogy seriously. In many years of listening to scientific colleagues, I heard nothing to suggest such a view.

In contrast, Wertheim ignores all social thinking that is a reasonable precursor to today's views and actions around cyberspace. Recall the notion that "a university is a community centered on a library", and many, many related works about how communities work and about domains of ideas.

Furthermore, in discussing science Wertheim ignores the most important factor that drove philosophical and scientific thinkers to their views of metric spaces--symmetry and simple forms in differential equations.

On the positive side, I learned a few obscure and very interesting names--those of thinkers before their time. E.g., Nicolas of Cusa (13th century), Kaluza (19th century). I'll dig into those.

Summary: for any careful thinker, this book is a distraction and waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: This is an amazing book
Review: Forget the title - the real story here is in the subtitle "A History of Space from Dante to the Internet". That's what attracted me, and it lives up to the promise. In less than 200 pages Wertheim gives us the story of space from the middle ages to today. The medieval space of the afterlife, Renaissance perspective space, Copernicus' discovery of astronomical space, Einstein's relativistic space, and todays theories of cyberspace -- Wertheim connects the dots as if she is solving a complex historical puzzle. Even if you don't give a damn about cyberspace this is an amazing book. After reading this you will never take the word "space" for granted again. As Wertheim shows, there is a never-ending morphing of this quintessiential concept.

Rating:
Summary: Great title, but ...
Review: I certainly enjoyed reading this book, and found some of the material in the earlier chapters very interesting, for example, about the development of the theory of perspective in art.

However,I felt that the bridge into the cyberspace stuff was rather strained and unconvincing. Certainly, the whole internet thing is of great significance to human development, but it didn't seem to fit comfortably into the space that Wertheim wants to put it.

Rating:
Summary: A mind-expanding exploration of the spaces that surround us.
Review: I have always wanted to read a cultural history of space, something that would help me understand how humans have conceived and poeticized the nature of the dimensions that surround them. Wertheim's book gave me all I wanted, and more. Wertheim shows us that space is part of a story that we humans are always telling ourselves about where and who we are. Unlike most science writers, Wertheim navigates the dire straits between science and the cultural imagination with intelligence and grace....._The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace_ isnt just longago history. In the closing chapters, Wertheim uses her fascinating tale to help us understand the psychological and even spiritual motivations that draw so many people to the Internet and electronic communications. Wertheim's basic argument -- that modern science banished the phantasms of the "soul" from our surroundings, and that those powerful images and yearnings are now returning inside the synthetic "space" of electronic information -- both acknoweldges the metaphysical yearnings expressed by cyberspace and refuses to give in to naive cyberhype. She ends her tale with some strong moral arguments rooted in both the eternal realities of the human imagination and the pressing historical demands of our time.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating but breathless look at our conception of space,
Review: The ground that this book is trying to cover is certainly expansive, and it's no wonder that some of the topic areas get short shrift. The initial chapters on our conceptions of space are fantastic: I was aware of how our conceptions have changed from absolute space to relativistic and beyond, but Wertheim did an excellent job of demonstrating how much of this change was conceptual rather than purely a change of scientific theory. More importantly, she shows how these changes affect our world-view and spiritual beliefs, and how these affect science and art in turn. For example, she argues that the flat & "unreal" nature of early religious paintings is a reflection of the idea of heaven being outside of normal space. Thus the adoption of three-dimension perspective drawing techniques signaled a shift towards the dominance of physical space. For anyone seeking good examples of changes in scientific paradigms, this book is an excellent place to start.

After recording a history of space to date, Wertheim tries to describe cyberspace as being the next significant shift in our conception of space. To most steeped in our current physicalist tradition, the concept of cyberspace as being an actual space is pretty way-out, but it does make sense in light of the previous world-views described by Wertheim. However, Wertheim characterises cyberspace as a place we enter, but in many ways it is the opposite- the projection of another space into our own. Viewed this way, the radical conclusions Wertheim makes seem rather far-fetched.

Where I was most disappointed was in Wertheim's treatment of "cyber-soul-space". The idea of uploading our selves into a virtual world is an enticing one, but too many of the complicated issues of self and consciousness are given a skimpy treatment, skipped over almost breathlessly as Wertheim races towards her conclusion. Many of these issues have been dealt with extensively in other books, but I was keen to see Wertheim's particular slant, as there are many interesting parallels between these issues and some of the medieval theologies discussed earlier. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but was disappointed that the initial rigour and detail of the first half was not followed through, but this is an inherent danger of writing a book with such a wide scope.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting new way of thinking...
Review: This book is really divided into 3 parts: history of expression of space through paintings, history of physics, and Wertheim's views on cyberspace. The first two sections are top notch research articles, comprehensive, easy to follow, and very accurate. These two sections alone could have be made into a book. The last section, however, is quite subjective. It basically states that cyberspace will replace the Christian heaven, becoming New Jerusalem, where all will be good, and none shall die. It is where our bodily restraints shall be no more, and we can live with a new image, created through our likings. This is all well in theory, but there are too many problems with utopians created by man. There is also mention of downloading our souls into cyberspace, where we can live after our bodies die. Quite far fetched, and it presents problems as well. Nothing is wrong with new ideas being presented, but wishes for the impossible will never be granted. Living human beings belong to the physical world, and without a body one cannot really be called human...

Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: This book offers a very introduction and explanation to the concept of space and links both historic and present situations in a perfect way. If you're interested in either philosophy, the internet, history, religion or all of that together, then read the book !

Rating:
Summary: Virtual Religion
Review: virtual connections to the holy space traced in this historic survey is an interesting perspective worth reading.