Cybermind

Cybermind is an Internet mailing list devoted to "the philosophy and psychology of cyberspace." It was co-founded by Alan Sondheim and Michael Current in mid-1994 to explore, exemplify and discuss multiple aspects of cyberspace, both from theoretical and experiential perspectives. The list was born in the split of the spoon collective lists from the Thinknet group, over issues of free speech and appropriate philosophical expression. Early membership involved much overlap with the Futureculture List. In more recent years discussions have become more general, but the list still has members from its founding period.

Michael Current died shortly after the founding of the group. This is not the only death that the group faced over the years, with quite a number of central members dying.

List discussion has resulted in books, articles, conferences, more than one academic thesis, a group novel (now available through Lulu), and a strong ongoing community. Cybermind itself has been the subject of academic research, including an anthropological Doctoral dissertation by Jonathan Marshall at the University of Sydney, which has now been published as the book Living on Cybermind. The book details the life of people on Cybermind over the period from 1994 to 2006 and uses many quotations from list members to analyse the ambiguities of net presence and absence (which is called asence), the paradoxes of the public/private divide, difficulties arising around authenticity and aggression, netsex, net-politics, and the construction of 'community'.

The other major gathering of writing about Cybermind is a collection of online essays about gender online and its role in the group's life.

All known writings about the List are listed in the References section.

References

Refereed Publications:

Unrefereed Publications

Unpublished Theses:

  • Hoberman, David Body, Text and Presence on the Internet, Honours Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Tufts University,1996.
  • Ruane, Deirdre Citizens of Cyberia: Explorations of Self and Society on the Internet, Study submitted in part fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication Studies at Dublin City University, August 1997

Creative Work/Fiction

See also
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