Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This book is an exciting tour of contemporary ideas in physics, mathematics, and postmodern cultural studies as well as in computing and informatics. Woolley, one of Britain's leading computer journalists, acknowledges that computer simulation capabilities have changed the nature of photography, cartography, and the mass media and have extended the range of scientists and artists to simulate reality. But unlike most computer journalists, Woolley sees international enthusiasm for computer-generated "virtual reality" as underpinned by parallel changes in the development of chaos theory in mathematics, the advancement of quantum theory in physics, and postmodern analyses of the subtexts in literature and the mass media. In a series of essays, Woolley succinctly reviews chaos theory, quantum mechanics, structuralism, poststructuralism, and critical theory. The crossover and blending of ideas in arts, literature, and science is particularly impressive and rarely duplicated. Woolley's thesis is that computers extend human understanding of nature and culture and do not undermine or degrade actual experience. But the most impressive aspect of the book is Woolley's ability as one of the world's leading intellectual journalists to explain a variety of ideas in a clear, dispassionate manner for an audience besides university faculty and graduate students. The book fits well with such works about the information age as Stuart Brand's The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT (1988). It is very highly recommended for all serious collections regarding mass media, postmodernism, history of technology/science, and social dimensions of computer science. R. A. Logan; University of MissouriDSColumbia