Eero wrote:

Doesnt this give us enough to research and study without hallucinating about cyberspace? Must we have so much "cyber jargon" to describe what are very simple processes and for most users merely a convenient communications tool?

Communication is all about speaking/writing clearly and simply. The greater the number of people who can understand you, the greater your ability to communicate. I dont understand how "cyber jargon" and hallucinating about cyberspace makes the world a better place or enriches humankind - or how it makes one a greater communicator. :-)

Nah. Communication is about at least three things, all involving time and space: 1) Historically, communication is a synonym to transportation. Prior to the telegraph, virtually any message had to be physically carried from sender to receiver. Needless to say, we still conceive of communication as a process involving transport/dissemination of messages and thus, time and space. 2) Communication is about the (electronic) exchange of information that you allude to. This is not a trivial matter, though. 2a) A bus schedule (trivial informatiation) works in most parts of the world, but it works according to complex local customs and tools structuring the time-space continuum (spatial knowledge such as geography and the use of time keeping devices). 2b) Richer forms of communication mostly use verbal language. According to Mark Johnson et al., language is full of metaphors alluding to space and time - surely you would _go along_ with this _proposition_, right? 3) Communication is about shared interiorities, as I think John Durham Peters calls it, i.e. the bond to our fellow humans. I think that he fails to recognize how much objects and our bodies matter in communication. If you love somebody, do you send them an e-mail? No, you present them with a rose. Sharing sentiments is often a matter of bodily gesture: :o)= Now if I should deliver a bold jab at your world-view, just as you did to mine (and I thank you for it), I would suggest that you are so focused on communication as trivial information (2a above) that you forget about all the rest. In essence, you are like a blinkered horse, faithfully trotting along sensing only the familiar road ahead, but missing all the exciting things happening in the landscape around you. You should be galloping in the fields instead! Best, Charlie -- Charlie Breindahl Ph.D. Student, Copenhagen + Malmö Web: http://staff.hum.ku.dk/hitch/ http://www.creativeenvironments.mah.se/ Phone: +45 35 32 81 14 Mobile: +45 51 92 15 98 E-mail: hitch@hum.ku.dk "For the modern Don Quixote, the windmills have been preprogrammed to turn into knights" - Janet H. Murray