The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age

The author (director, Interactive Multimedia Lab, U. of Texas, Austin) looks at the ways modern communications technologies such as e-mail and Internet chat spaces are transforming our erotic sensibilities and tinkering with our sense of identity. Messages sent into cyberspace require us to reveal little about ourselves, she argues, or enable us to try on alternate personas, a fact of virtual life that she finds both exciting and potentially dangerous. Of interest to readers concerned with the social and ethical ramifications of the information era. No index. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.