They wrote, however, prior to the explosion of digital technology and the small computer revolution of the 1980s. Each of these writers provides important perspectives on technology, even if their expectations of its development, in hindsight, need some qualification. The major assumption that I want to take into the second stage of the discussion is drawn principally from McLuhan's view of technology as involving the extension of the human body. McLuhan's view implies that technologies express themselves in the way that reality is constructed in a particular epoch. The second stage of the argument will engage the emerging literature on digital technology as an area of cultural criticism.
Information technologies involve the reconstruction of reality as a system of information.
If, as McLuhan suggests, technology inserts itself at the heart of reality construction, the question of the status of metaphysics needs to be addressed. I shall argue that such a position is not tenable. The concept of the virtual needs further exploration. My argument involves two main points. Digital technologies blur the distinction between the real and the imaginary.