The informatic jeremiad

the virtual frontier and us cyberculture

Salvatore Proietti

pp. 116-126

in: Karen Sayer, John Moore (eds), Science fiction, critical frontiers, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000

Abstract

Notions of the cyborg and of virtual space are present in US social discourse throughout this century. Their history is a continuing dialogue between science fiction (sf) and cultural theory, placing contemporary "cyberculture" in a consistent, neglected tradition. This essay reads some representative nonfiction and sf texts as attempts to update the rhetoric of US democracy. The stakes are the recreation and relegitimation of utopia americana and of its chosen people, in the name of a conflictless teleology of command and control through communication technology.