Index

Contents

   List of illustrations                                       viii
   Acknowledgments                                               ix

1  Power and cyberspace                                           1
   Key concepts  1
   Introduction  1
   Cyberpower  2
   Power  7
      Max Weber: power as a possession  9
      Barry Barnes: power as social order  11 
      Michel Foucault: power as domination  15

2  Cyberspace and the matrix                                     20
   Key concepts  20 
   Introduction 21
   Cyberspace: the science fiction vision  23
   Cyberspace: the matrix of computers  33
      History of a technology 33
      Size, users and uses  49
      Conclusion 55 
   Barlovian cyberspace 55

3  The virtual individual                                        59
   Key concepts  59
   Introduction  60
   Axes of individual cyberpower; identity, hierarchy,
      information  65 
      Identity fluidity 65 
      Anti-hierarchical  79
      A world made of information  85 
   Cyberpower at the individual  87
      Cyberpower as a possession  88 
      Cyberpolitics: access and rights 89 
   Conclusion  96

4  The virtual social I: the social in cyberspace               100
   Key concepts 100	.
   Introduction 101
   The social and the individual 107 
   Technopower 110 
   The spiral of technopower 115 
      Information overload 117 
      The complete spiral 128 
   The technopower elite 135

5  The virtual social II: the social between online and offline 142
   Key concepts  142
   Introduction  142
   Cyberspace and production, consumption and politics in 
      information societies  145 
      Production  147 
      Consumption  153 
      Politics  162 
   The informational space of flows  167 
   Online and offline  171

6  The virtual imaginary	                                179
   Key concepts  179 
   Introduction  179 
   The collective imagination  181
   Visions of heaven...  185
      Cyborgs  187
      Information codes  190
   ...and hell  196
      Superpanopticon: cyborgs, minutiae and fear of
         cyberspace  201
      Fear itself  204
   Cyberspace's imaginary  205
   
7 Cyberpower                                                    208
   Key concepts  208 
   Introduction  208
   Relations between three types of cyberpower  210 
   The first war of cyberspace: elites and grassroots  214

Notes                                                           219
Glossary                                                        229
Bibliography                                                    233
Index                                                           248