Ontology of Cyberspace – book links

Here is the first chapter of the book by David Koepsell –

The popular culture, and unfortunately, even the few philosophical works pertaining to cyberspace, do not challenge the assumption that cyberspace is intangible, or that its objects are somehow special. In actuality, cyberspace is just another expressive medium. Since the sixties, however, notions about the nature of media have been confused in no small part due to Marshall McLuhan whose confused and confusing mantra — “the medium is the message” — survives in almost every existing account of cyberspace. The medium is the medium and the message is the message. There is, as we will see, no theoretically sound basis to conflate the two. Moreover, everything we create purposefully is an expression in some medium.

Mistakes about these concepts have led to a confused ontology, or categorization, of cyberspace and its constituents. These mistakes have also, as a result of parallel developments, come to be reflected in a legal scheme which no longer works. What follows is an argument in support of these contentions, and a proposal for a new ontology of cyberspace and of intellectual property in general. The new ontology avoids the mistakes outlined above, and serves as a rational alternative to the myths which surround cyberspace and all computer-mediated phenomena.

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