Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-320) and index
A book about people and how computers are causing us to reevaluate our identities in the age of the Internet
Introduction : identity in the age of the Internet -- I. The seductions of the interface. A tale of two aesthetics ; The triumph of tinkering -- II. Of dreams and beasts. Making a pass at a robot ; Taking things at interface value ; The quality of emergence ; Artificial life as the new frontier -- III. On the Internet. Aspects of the self ; TinySex and gender trouble ; Virtuality and its discontents ; Identity crisis -- A note on method: the inner history of technology