Imaginary futures: from thinking machines to the global village

Richard Barbrook

Pluto, 2007 - Computers - 334 pages

This book is a history of the future. It shows how our contemporary understanding of the Net is shaped by visions of the future that were put together in the 1950s and 1960s.

Contents

• THE AMERICAN CENTURY: 13
• 02: 20
• COLD WAR COMPUTING: 31

About the author

Richard Barbrook is the author of a number of highly influential essays on the clash between commerce and cooperation within the Net, including 'The Hi-Tech Gift Economy', 'Cyber-communism' and, with Andy Cameron, 'The Californian Ideology'. He has recently published a book on the social groups shaping the information society: The Class of the New (2006). Barbrook is Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages at the University of Westminster and is a trustee of cybersalon.org.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Imaginary futures: from thinking machines to the global village
• Author: Richard Barbrook
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Pluto, 2007
• ISBN: 0745326609, 9780745326603
• Length: 334 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Social Aspects / General; Political Science / General; Political Science / History & Theory; Social Science / Future Studies; Social Science / General; Technology & Engineering / Social Aspects