Weinberger, David. (2002). Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.
List Price $25.00, 223 pages.
Review by Doris A. Bitler
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences
George Mason University
dbitler@gmu.edu
Posted: January, 2004 Student Affairs Online, vol. 5 no. 1 - Winter 2004
Initially,
the subtitle of this book seems rather intimidating. After all, a unified theory of the Web would almost certainly
result in a manuscript dense with technological jargon, incomprehensible to
most of us and, worst of all, excruciatingly boring. Fortunately, Small Pieces Loosely Joined is anything but dull,
and the subtitle is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the nonexistent unified theory
of physics, as Weinberger explains in the preface. His focus is on the ways in which the Web is impacting society,
and possibly changing long-held beliefs about reality and human nature.
The
first indication that this is going to be an interesting reading experience is
the table of contents, with chapter headings such as “Space,” “Time,”
“Perfection,” and “Hope.” In each of
these and the other topics areas, Weinberger compares the reality of the Web to
our external reality, his thesis being that the Web is being created (and constantly
re-created) by people, and, therefore, better reflects our true nature than our
actions in the more restrictive material world.
In
Small Pieces Loosely Joined, Weinberger makes numerous intriguing and
provocative observations about the Web and its relationship to the real
world. For example, he draws a
comparison between physical places and Web sites, the places of the Web. We are accustomed to thinking of nearness in
terms of distance. In contrast, nearness
on the Web is related strictly to the interests of the person creating a web site
with hyperlinks. Florida is not near
France in the real world. However, they
are near each other, in the Web sense of nearness, at the Disney Online Web
site, which features a list of Disney destinations (including Walt Disney World
Resort Florida and Disneyland Resort Paris).
On the Web, nearness may also be judged by the availability of a
hyperlink to another site. A Web site I
developed for a class I teach has a link to the site of the Sigmund Freud
Museum in Vienna, making this Vienna landmark just a click away - very near
indeed - for students exploring my site.
Another
interesting aspect of Web space, as characterized by Weinberger, is its
asymmetry. In physical space, nearness
is consistently symmetrical. For
example, the cup of coffee on my desk is near the book that is the subject of
this review. Due to the balanced nature
of the real world, the book is also near the cup. The Web, though, is not at all symmetrical. The Sigmund Freud Museum site is near my
class Web site thanks to the hyperlink I chose to include as part of my site,
but it can be fairly assumed that the Museum does not have a link to the site
for my Introductory Psychology class.
My Web site, therefore, is not near the Museum’s site. We have created an asymmetrical world, quite
surprisingly different from the physical world in which we live our everyday
lives.
Despite
its relatively short existence, many of us have come to take the Web for
granted. Small Pieces Loosely Joined
caused me to reflect on this amazing and world-changing technology, and look at
its incredible development in an entirely new way. Anyone who is interested in a thought provoking look at how the
web is affecting, and being affected by, individuals and society will find this
to be a fascinating read.