Bill (Mitchell) explains how the Net augments reality

I don't think many people bought the idea of cyberspace as some new, really different, yet virtual reality. That was mostly a US 'new frontier' notion. Yet there's growing recognition that the Internet changes lives and places just as telegraphs, telephones, gas, electricity, road, rail and other networks have in the past. William J. Mitchell explored just how the Net changes where we live in City of Bits (1995) and e-topia (1999). He returns to the theme in his new book Me++ promoting the idea of 'augmented reality' (AR instead of VR) in which, as he explains in Guardian Online today, ubiquitous computing and mobile wireless networks are used to reconnect us to the real world. We should no longer think of ourselves as 'fixed, discrete individuals' but as nodes in a network. As Jim McClellan writes in the Guardian, 'Mitchell's approach is hopeful (rather than hype-ful), a world away from the glib futurology that dominated writing about technology over the past decade.' Certainly more to my taste than the other Bill, and I'll be going to hear William J. at his Tate Modern lecture on November 19 at 6.30.

Comments

[David Lee]

i thought that last night's lecture was excellent. my question is - surely there are social, political issues that weren't addressed in terms of who benefits from this new networked world? i've not read William J Mitchell's books so last new was my introduction to his thinking... and inspiring it was too. does he discuss access and exclusion at all? anyway, just ordered me++ do i look forward to being far more knowledgeable about him in the near future!

[Petrarch's Bookshop Australia]

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is Michelle Briggs and I am work at Petrarch's Bookshop in Tasmania Australia. I am trying to locate where I am able to purchase a book written by Mr Bill Mitchell, that was recently shown on the BBC television network in Australia.
The title is his new book: Me ++
A good customer of ours would like to purchase the book, and as of yet I have been unable to find the australian distributor of this book.
Any help you could give me, I would greatly appreciate, as we pride ourselves in locating hard to track books.

Many Thanks
Michelle Briggs
Petrarch's Bookshop
Launceston Tasmania
Australia 7250

ph: 03 63 318 088
fax: 03 63 315 063
email: petlau@bigpond.net.au

[David Wilcox]

Michelle
The publisher - MIT Press - is linked (but perhaps not too clearly) in the text of the blog item,
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?sid=59815624-DA03-4550-BDAB-26D96D4372EC&ttype=2&tid=9895
and I guess you would need to get in touch with them about an Australian distributor. Hope this helps.