The newest communication technologies are profoundly changing
the world's politics, economies, and cultures, but the specific
implications of online game worlds remain mysterious. "The Virtual
Future" employs theories and methods from social science to explore
nine very different virtual futures: "The Matrix Online," "Tabula
Rasa," "Anarchy Online," "Entropia Universe," "Star Trek Online,"
"EVE Online, Star Wars Galaxies," "World of Warcraft: Burning
Crusade," and "The Chronicles of Riddick."
Each presents a different picture of how technology and society
could evolve in coming centuries, but one theme runs through all of
them, the attempt to escape the Earth and seek new destinies among
the stars. Four decades after the last trip to the moon, a new
conception of spaceflight is emerging. Rather than rockets shooting
humans across vast physical distances to sterile rocks that lack
the resources to sustain life, perhaps robot space probes and
orbiting telescopes will glean information about the universe, that
humans can then experience inside computer-generated environments
much closer to home.
All nine of these fantastically rich multiplayer masterpieces
have shown myriads of people that really radical alternatives to
contemporary society could exist, and has served as a laboratory
for examining the consequences. Each is a prototype of new social
forms, a utopian subculture, and a simulation of technologies that
have yet to be invented. They draw upon several different
traditions of science fiction and academic philosophy, and they
were created in several nations. By comparing these nine
role-playing fantasies, we can better consider what kind of world
we want to inhabit in the real future."
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