THIS BOOK, SUBTITLED “A HISTORY OF
Space from Dante to the Internet”, explores the concept of cyberspace as “a
technological substitute for the Christian space of heaven”.
As someone who lives in a religious
vacuum, whose knowledge of physics stops at Newton, and whose grasp of the
internet hardly extends beyond Austlii, I expected this to be a challenging
read! I needn’t have worried. Like Wertheim’s previous work, Pythagoras’
Trousers, this is an accessible and entertaining book.
A central theme, which will be
familiar to readers of Pythagoras’ Trousers, is the link between
religion and scientific discovery. “Contrary to contemporary dogma”, says
Wertheim, “religious ideas have often helped to spur the development of science
– particularly the science of physics.”
Wertheim takes us on a journey
through western history, from ancient Greece, through the Middle Ages, to the
information age. Exploring ideas of great thinkers from Aristotle to Einstein,
Wertheim demonstrates how western concepts of space have shifted over the
centuries. Whether she is discussing the celestial spheres, the theory of
relativity, or eleven-dimensional hyperspace, she has a knack of placing
complex ideas within our grasp.
Most fascinating was the medieval
belief in the co-existence of distinct physical and spiritual realms, as
illustrated by works such as Dante’s Divine Comedy. This dualism stands
in stark contrast to modern notions of space, which are rooted in the physical
and leave little room for the spiritual.
So how did such a profound shift in
ideas come about? Wertheim links it to the development of realism in
renaissance art. Artists such as Giotto moved away from the flat iconic style,
and used perspective to make images look three-dimensional – thus bringing
religious images into the physical realm.
In the modern quest to describe and
define space, and to calculate its dimensions, the spiritual seems to have been
squeezed out. Is it any wonder, then, that some people dare to hope that the
new digital realm may offer some space for the soul?
The concept of cyberspace as “an
idealized realm above and beyond the problems of a troubled material world” is
not a new one. Many commentators have extolled the virtues of the internet as a
place to transcend boundaries of geography, gender, age, class and colour.
Science-fiction fantasies of downloading one’s brain have been around for quite
a while.
Wertheim is critical of “much
cyber-utopian rhetoric” and warns that, like Dante’s Inferno, cyberspace
could easily become a hell of our own creation. However, she concludes on an
optimistic note, expressing the hope that cyberspace may “contribute to our
understanding of how to build better communities.”