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AN ELECTRONIC FORUM FOR THE DISCUSSION OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF SUBJECTIVITY IN CYBERSPACE
We are all dwelling in cyberspace, coursing through the wires, becoming cyborg and becoming human. We are subjects of a realm which is totally charted, and completely unknown. CYBERMIND is devoted to an examination of the new subjectivities that have emerged and might yet emerge in this arena. We are interested in particular in the philosophical, psychological/psychoanalytic and social issues engendered, particularly as they concern the user and hir community.
Some issues that might be relevant: the psychology of intimacy, the role and function of gender, the emergence and/or disappearance of the body in cyberspace, the phenomenology of the terminal screen, neurosis and paranoia on the Net, sex/gender/sexuality theory and electronic subjectivity, the role of the symbolic or imaginary in computer communi- cation, the implications of symbolic extensions of the human ("external memory", and so forth), fantasy and the hallucinatory aspects of email/USENET/MUD*s, and the psychoanalysis of lurking.
This is an "open list" - posts on all aspects of the above issues and more will be welcomed. It is open to general discussion, group readings of published works, and the sharing and critique of participants' works-in-progress.
One concern we hope to address is the way in which much theoretical work on cyberspace to date reflects an exclusive, totalizing bias, thus foreclosing some of the most interesting and radical possibilities for the development of Net culture. We want to challenge ourselves and the list members to integrate issues of race, sex, class, sexuality and culture in our efforts to think cyberspace together.
We believe this list will be an important forum for opening up new perspectives on cyberspace and cyberculture, and are anxious and excited to engage in a dialogue with all interested parties on the types of issues described here. Our list is open to everyone, be they academics, Net "technicians," or ordinary citizens of cyberspace who wish to join us in thinking and discussing the present and future of this fascinating, exciting, and sometimes frustrating realm - and, ultimately, of ourselves.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT POSTS CONTAINING LANGUAGE OR DEALING WITH SUBJECT MATTER THAT SOME MIGHT FIND OFFENSIVE MAY APPEAR ON THE LIST FROM TIME TO TIME, AND SUCH POSTS WILL NOT BE CENSORED. However, we would also like you to know that racial or other bias slurs will not be tolerated; there are other sites on the Internet for them.
Also unacceptable are posts which are repeatedly off-topic and undermin- ing of the community. While not all posts to the list are necessarily on- topic, off-topic posts will only be accepted if they generally serve to build or enhance connections among list members, and/or flesh out our self-representations.
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If you have any difficulties, or more general questions, contact
the moderators:
Drew Shiel (gothwalk@SOFTHOME.NET)
Alan Sondheim (sondheim@panix.com)
We have Cybermind home-pages at
http://www.lm.com/~tellis/cyber/cm.html run by Tom Ellis
And at the site you are now visiting.
Please note: Michael Current, co-founder of this
list, died in July,1994. Those of us who have known
him miss him terribly. We dedicate this list to him.
--Pippa Holloway and Alan Sondheim