Is the Internet diminishing or enhancing community? Does the Word Wide Web help us feel more connected or less? Is distance education through Internet media making knowledge more available, or is it robbing people of face-to-face learning experiences? Are online communities real communities? These are the sort of questions raised by Hubert Dreyfus’ On the Internet . If one ever wondered what influential philosophers like Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, or Martin Heidegger would have thought about the World Wide Web, On the Internet is the first, and perhaps best, place to look. Dreyfus is a leading existential philosopher who offers a compelling and persuasive assessment of the Internet’s benefits and limitations. If you are one who looks to the Web for a disembodied world of ubiquitous learning, connection, and meaningful life, Dreyfus’ book is a friendly killjoy. What this book is and is not Dreyfus’ discussion of the Internet is somewhat narrow. He doesn’t write about file sharing, Internet porn, blogging, newsgroups, or chat rooms. Rather he does a much broader sweep of Internet technologies. On the Internet is primarily a critique of cyberlibertarian principles. Dreyfus cites the authors of the 1994 document, “ Cyberspace and the American Dream: A Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age ,” or the more “far out” example of the Extropy Institute . These groups look with great optimism to the world of cyber technology. For example, the Extropy Institute optimistically looks to a “posthuman future” when we are no longer limited by our physical bodies. Written on the eve of widespread Internet use, the Magna Carta looks with great expectation to the creation of “electronic neighborhoods,” where “cyberspace will play an important role knitting together in the diverse communities of tomorrow.” At first it may seem like Dreyfus is positioning straw men to knock down. After all, who really believes computers will utterly replace human teachers? Who believes all can one day receive as good an education via distance learning as being an apprentice to the masters?

Original Source of Book Review: On the Internet