In this chapter we look in detail at some ways in which cyberspace is changing our thoughts, feelings and actions. Cyberspace is changing how we perceive truth: web sites may give the facts behind the stories but can mislead and misrepresent; it is changing the way we treat people: we can keep in touch and make friends by email but there is a risk of confusing the cyber-presence with the person; it is shifting power: anyone with a web site can reach the world but a few organizations have immense power; its diversity and complexity can be exhilarating but can cause alienation. And it is also challenging our understanding of what a person is. Computer programs can increasingly behave in cyberspace as if they were persons, challenging what it means to be human.
Technology changes what is possible. It also changes what we think of as possible. Ships, railways, motorcars and air travel changed the sense of geography and personal space. Printing, and postal, telegraph and telephone systems changed the means of sending messages and communication. There have been enormous changes in what we think is possible from the recent developments in travel, human reproduction and communication. Technology does more than just mechanically change possibilities, it changes what we think it is possible to accomplish.
So does cyberspace. New possibilities and habits are introduced by the power of rapid communication and access to information. The Internet alters the sense of space and time in what we can do and with whom we communicate. Because cyberspace is causing profound and pervasive changes, our minds are shaped by its changes, which are then reinforced by daily use and experience. It is what we do as well as what we think that shapes our minds; what we do regularly leads us into new habits. We stop thinking about what we do habitually. We come to expect the new capability.
Our expectation comes with a cost. The ability to manipulate digital objects makes us wonder if what we are looking at or hearing is real and true. Easy communication all over the globe makes us re-evaluate relationships as we spend time with people online. Or not. Most of us just survive and do not think about such questions - we simply accept the way that cyberspace and its new economy shapes our thoughts without thinking about it.
This chapter examines a few of the ways in which cyberspace is shaping our thinking, which we now consider here under the headings: