'HyperReality is a technological capability like nanotechnology, human cloning and artificial intelligence. Like them, it does not as yet exist in the sense of being clearly demonstrable and publicly available. Like them, it is maturing in laboratories where the question "if" has been replaced by the question "when?" and like them, the implications of its appearance as a basic infrastructure technology are profound and merit careful consideration.' - Nobuyoshi Terashim...

This book is about the shift from the modern university of the nation state to the global virtual university of the future. John Tiffin and Lalita Rajasingham launched the idea of virtual universities on the Internet with the publication of 'In Search of the Virtual Class: Education in an Information Society' in 1995. Since then, virtual universities have multiplied worldwide. However, the authors argue that globalisation and the Internet are still in their infancy, and universities have y...

'Shirley zips into her skin-tight school uniform, which on the outside looks something like a ski suit. The lining of the suit in fact contains cabling that makes the suit a communication system and there are pressure pads where the suit touches skin that give a sense of touch. Next, she sits astride something that is a bit like a motorbike, except that it has no wheels and is attached firmly to the floor. Her feet fit on to something similar to a brake and accelerator and her gloved h...

Awarded with the US National Indie Excellence Award 2014 in Social Media. This book is about digital media. Even more, the book is about us. It explains how the ever-growing flood of digital media affects our perceptions of the world, change our behaviors and eventually transform our very existence. In the era of Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Apple, being online is the standard. We spend many hours a day gazing at our screens, traversing the virtual realm, and posting our tweets, tags, an...

As evidenced by the clientele in any urban coffee shop, devices such as cell phones, BlackBerries, and Wi-Fi-enabled laptops have proliferated, particularly during the past ten years. The Wireless Spectrum explores how wireless technologies have modified both individual and public life, transforming our experiences of space, time, and place, while reshaping our day-to-day interactions.Bringing together visual artists, designers, activists, and communication and humanities ...

This book looks at the origins and the many contemporary meanings of the virtual. Rob Shields shows how the construction of virtual worlds has a long history. He examines the many forms of faith and hysteria that have surrounded computer technologies in recent years. Moving beyond the technologies themselves he shows how the virtual plays a role in our daily lives at every level. The virtual is also an essential concept needed to manage innovation and risk. It is real but not actual, ideal...

Architecture and Adaptation discusses architectural projects that use computational technology to adapt to changing conditions and human needs. Topics include kinetic and transformable structures, digitally driven building parts, interactive installations, intelligent environments, early precedents and their historical context, socio-cultural aspects of adaptive architecture, the history and theory of artificial life, the theory of human-computer interaction, tangible computing,an...

′This is an ambitious, original, and complex treatment of key aspects of contemporary capitalism. It makes a major contribution because it profoundly destabilizes the scholarship on globalization, the so-called new economy, information technology, distinct contemporary business cultures and practices′- Saskia Sassen, author of Globalization and its Discontents′Nigel Thrift offers us the sort of cultural analysis of global capitalism that has long be...

Military command and control is not merely evolving, it is co-evolving. Technology is creating new opportunities for different types of command and control, and new types of command and control are creating new aspirations for technology. The question is how to manage this process, how to achieve a jointly optimised blend of socio and technical and create the kind of agility and self-synchronisation that modern forms of command and control promise. The answer put forward in this book is to...

Mapping Cyberspace is a ground-breaking geographic exploration and critical reading of cyberspace, and information and communication technologies. The book:* provides an understanding of what cyberspace looks like and the social interactions that occur there* explores the impacts of cyberspace, and information and communication technologies, on cultural, political and economic relations* charts the spatial forms of virutal spaces* details empirical rese...

Stakeholder or public participation has become something of a modern mantra employed in all sorts of contexts to give people a voice. There are many variants on this 'participation' but traditionally they all share a desire to maximise involvement and provide desired 'outputs' of a required quality as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Difference tends to be reduced and compromise encouraged as the outputs or even just the appearance of participation are emphasised.This book explo...

How is the internet changing the way you think? That is one of the dominant questions of our time, one which affects almost every aspect of our life and future. And it's exactly what John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, posed to more than 150 of the world's most influential minds. Brilliant, farsighted, and fascinating, Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? is an essential guide to the Net-based world.