Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a history of the future. It shows how our contemporary understanding of the Net is shaped by visions of the future that were put together in the 1950s and 1960s.
Trade Review'Barbrook has an amusing take on our distorted - if not delusional - relationship with technology, but his underlying point is serious: future visions of technology are used to distract us and also control us, and if we forget these imaginary futures, we are likely to repeat them' -- Guardian Unlimited
'A compelling, authoritative, and painstakingly documented narrative, Imaginary Futures traces the emergence of the computer era in the context of desperately competing ideologies, economics, and empires. This is a work of passionate and persuasive scholarship by a contemporary social theorist at the top of his game' -- Douglas Rushkoff, author, Coercion, Media Virus, Get Back in the Box.
Table of Contents1. The Future Is What It Used To Be
2. The American Century
3. Cold War Computing
4. The Human Machine
5. Cybernetic Supremacy
6. The Global Village
7. The Cold War Left
8. The Chosen Few
9. Free Workers In The Affluent Society
10. The Prophets Of Post-Industrialism
11. The American Road to Cybernetic Communism
12. The Leader Of The Free World
13. The Great Game
14. The American Invasion Of Vietnam
15. Those Who Forget The Future Are Condemned To Repeat It
References
Index
