Is the Internet really a place where disembodied souls can find freedom? Science writer Wertheim (Pythagoras’ Trousers: God, Physics, and the Gender Wars, 1995) builds a strong historical and philosophical case for the spirituality of cyberspace. According to Wertheim, the medieval worldview posited an essential dualism between the physical body, which existed on earth, and the soul, which could ascend to a higher heavenly plane. With the advent of modern science, however, all realms were incorporated within the rubric of physical space. The body still had a habitus, but the soul was displaced. Wertheim labors a bit too long on the history of this interpretive transformation, devoting whole chapters to the nature of heavenly space as depicted in Dante and Renaissance art (though the breadth of her knowledge of philosophy and art history, as well as science, shows her to be a rare “Renaissance” thinker). She then explores how the Enlightenment effectively abolished celestial space by declaring the supremacy of empirical reality, and how the 20th century has inaugurated something called “hyperspace”: space is all that can be said to exist. Even matter is only reconfigured, curved space. The last third of the book throws cyberspace into this historical mix. Wertheim argues quite cogently that cyberspace has superseded concepts of hyperspace to become a kind of “metaphysical gateway,” a threshold into an entirely new dimension. Well, not new exactly. In one of the book’s genius strokes, Wertheim hearkens back to the medieval concept of space to declare that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Like the medieval thinkers, cybernauts cling to the Internet as a sort of heavenly sphere where bodies, age, race, gender, and nationality cease to exist. Ironically, our most stunning scientific achievement has returned us to a spiritual dualism. And Wertheim claims that this is ultimately “an essentially positive vision,” since cyberspace is built upon a network of human relationships. Dense but marvelously provocative. (37 b&w illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-393-04694-X
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.
Tyson (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, 2017, etc.) receives a great deal of mail, and this slim volume collects his responses and other scraps of writing.
The prolific science commentator and bestselling author, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, delivers few surprises and much admirable commentary. Readers may suspect that most of these letters date from the author’s earlier years when, a newly minted celebrity, he still thrilled that many of his audience were pouring out their hearts. Consequently, unlike more hardened colleagues, he sought to address their concerns. As years passed, suspecting that many had no interest in tapping his expertise or entering into an intelligent give and take, he undoubtedly made greater use of the waste basket. Tyson eschews pure fan letters, but many of these selections are full of compliments as a prelude to asking advice, pointing out mistakes, proclaiming opposing beliefs, or denouncing him. Readers will also encounter some earnest op-ed pieces and his eyewitness account of 9/11. “I consider myself emotionally strong,” he writes. “What I bore witness to, however, was especially upsetting, with indelible images of horror that will not soon leave my mind.” To crackpots, he gently repeats facts that almost everyone except crackpots accept. Those who have seen ghosts, dead relatives, and Bigfoot learn that eyewitness accounts are often unreliable. Tyson points out that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so confirmation that a light in the sky represents an alien spacecraft requires more than a photograph. Again and again he defends “science,” and his criteria—observation, repeatable experiments, honest discourse, peer review—are not controversial but will remain easy for zealots to dismiss. Among the instances of “hate mail” and “science deniers,” the author also discusses philosophy, parenting, and schooling.
A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-324-00331-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
The Johnstown Flood was one of the greatest natural disasters of all time (actually manmade, since it was precipitated by a wealthy country club dam which had long been the source of justified misgivings). This then is a routine rundown of the catastrophe of May 31st, 1889, the biggest news story since Lincoln's murder in which thousands died. The most interesting incidental: a baby floated unharmed in its cradle for eighty miles.... Perhaps of local interest-but it lacks the Lord-ly touch.
Pub Date: March 18, 1968
ISBN: 0671207148
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968
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