MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

In this Information Era, society faces many issues regarding the digital archiving of printed texts. Literature, music, videos become transferred into files, yet they are never quite the original, and humans are forced to recognize the ongoing extinction of our primitive texts. Even more so, as we increase awareness of our existence within the Posthuman Age; digital landscapes seem to be intertwining rapidly, certainly within our information sectors, and now even in the world of medicine and transportation. Our urban environments now also become enmeshed within technology, spouting digital interfaces from billboards advertisements to street lights, and as we traverse through the physical world we constantly gaze through the digital filter of GPS(s), while communicating through various social mediums. Meanwhile, the World Wide Web continues to grow, and we find ourselves delving deeper into the digital realm of cyberspace. Frankly, the lines between the digital world and the physical world are blurred. Just as humans have continually transcended toward a Posthuman existence, environments transform and mutate farther from the natural world into more technological jurisdictions. Therefore, I attempt to approach and survey the historical progression toward what I like to think of as digital ecosystems and examine the impacts that our innovations hold on society, economy, medicine and the fine arts. How can we uncover the issues or what Murphy Graham refers to as “the interstitial cracks of the post/human cultural pavement?” Graham uses Gibson’s works, “Virtual Light” (1993) and “Idoru” (1996), to discuss this question further. I feel it will be necessary to look back to his first novel, Neuromancer, to uncover what Gibson may be suggestion about the transformation of the post human environment. By examining these questions and concerns, we can continue to find solutions to cope with anxieties due to our changing surroundings.