World Weavers: Globalization, Science Fiction, and the Cybernetic Revolution

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Kin-yuen Wong, Gary Westfahl, Amy Kit-sze Chan
Hong Kong University Press, 2005 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 307 pages
World Weavers is the first ever study on the relationship between globalization and science fiction. Scientific innovations provide citizens of different nations with a unique common ground and the means to establish new connections with distant lands. This study attempts to investigate how our world has grown more and more interconnected not only due to technological advances, but also to a shared interest in those advances and to what they might lead to in the future. Science fiction has long been both literally and metaphorically linked to the emerging global village. It now takes on the task of exploring how the cybernetic revolution might transform the world and keep it one step ahead of the real world, despite ever-accelerating developments. As residents of a world that is undeniably globalized, science-fictional and virtual, it is incumbent on us to fully understand just how we came to live in such a world, and to envisage where this world may be heading next. World Weavers represents one small but significant step toward achieving such knowledge.

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Contents

Tradition Technology and the Cultural Monad
7
A Prehistory of the Postmodern World City
25
The Genealogy of the Cyborg in Japanese Popular Culture
55
Copyright

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