The Net world is a second universe, a kingdom in our midst, with sights and sounds, landscapes and knowledge-scapes, markets and amusements, romances and resources many of which have never before been seen on Earth. It burgeons forth, this global Village of villages, gaining each hour more and more inhabitants, who live and move and have their being in a world which is nowhere and yet everywhere. We who inhabit the Internet s virtual outposts are fast evolving into new kinds of beings, our neural system and sensory receptors extended through space and time. Psychologies that have endured for millennia are passing away in a few hundred months. In response, the human psyche itself is expanding even, I believe, being remade.
Shadows loom large of course.
The embodiment and broadcasting of private images across the Internet has allowed for monsters to get out there, private deviance to have an audience, obscenity to flourish. The old-fashioned vices, electronically amplified, have never had it so good. Porn is ever present, e-gambling holds millions in thrall, and many ordinary folk lose their savings to the addictions of electronic commerce, cyber malls and auctions for things they never knew they wanted until they popped up like sirens on the Net. Despite its shadows, the Internet nevertheless is our most promising road to transcendence. We are today in the early stage of being able to assume avatars.