Foundations of American Cyber-Cultures

The podcasts for the Berkeley course Foundations of American Cyber-Cultures currently being taught by Professor Greg Niemeyer are available online for all. I have had them on my drive for a while but today I am having a blogging marathon (notice the plethora of entries), reading tons of backlogged email and listening to podcasts that I have not had time to get to. So the podcasts seem alright, although I am not sure about Niemeyer's reliance on the distinction between Virtual and Real. Those fined for downloading are feeling the intersecting pinch between the two points of view. A central theme in Niemeyer's talk is embodiment and therefore touches on many areas of cyber identity. His discussion on race and identity is a shocking situation ("I am white and to be the only white in a room I couldn't act as I wanted to....and suddenly they noticed") for the non-Americans in the (virtual) audience. More downloads for the course (notes and texts) are available HERE. Niemeyer touches on points made by T.L. Taylor in the seminar Reconsidering Emergence (Mp3 also) in HUMlab recently.