This startling exploration of the mass media age uniquely combines complex nonfiction and prescient fiction from the best and brightest visionaries of the future. Essay contributors include Marshall McLuhan, who posited that the medium is the message; Cory Doctorow and his re-visioning of intellectual property in the digital age; and Nicolas Carr, whose cautionary warnings include that Google is making us stupid. The thought-provoking short stories are authored by science fiction luminaries including James Tiptree Jr., whose pseudonymous cyperpunk preceded all of her peers; Joe Haldeman and his wars where humans fight through cloning and time travel; and Norman Spinrad, who has pitted the media against an immortality conspiracy. Offering a blend of predictions for the course of communications, Future Media entertains while it informs and challenges readers to consider the implications for a society dealing with networks that are alternately personal, public, pervasive, and powerful.
Contents:
Preface: "Thoughts of a Mediated Future" by Rick Wilber
Introduction by Paul Levinson
Excerpt from Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan: "The Medium is the Message"
"Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr
"New Brains for Old" by James Patrick Kelly
Excerpt from Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
"Centigrade 233" by Gregory Benford
Excerpt from Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
"Fantasy for Six Electrodes and One Adrenaline Drip (A Play in the Form of a Feelie Script)" by Joe Haldeman.
Introduction to Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death by Andrew Postman
"At Central" by Kit Reed
Excerpt from Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad
"The Prize of Peril" by Robert Sheckley
"Sex, Death and Machinery" by Allucquére Rosanne Stone
"Baby, You Were Great" by Kate Wilhelm
"Rock On" by Pat Cadigan
"Feel the Zaz" by James Patrick Kelly
"Dude, We’re Gonna Be Jedi" by Henry Jenkins
"From Women and Technology to Gendered Technoscience" by Judy Wacjman
"The Girl Who Was Plugged In" by James Tiptree, Jr.
"Tech-Illa Sunrise" by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Guillermo Gómez-Peña
"As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush
"Download for Free" by Cory Doctorow
Excerpt from Makers by Cory Doctorow
"The Future of the Web" by Timothy Berners-Lee
Excerpt from Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan: "Automation"
