Boal for permission to reprint a part of an interview with George Lakoff, from James Brook and Iain A. Boal, Resisting the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information, (City Lights, 1995), p.115.
Institute of HeartMath for permission to reprint from “Science of The Heart: Exploring the Role of the Heart in Human Performance,” (Institute of HeartMath, 2001), www.heartmath.org
James Harkin for permission to reprint from Lost in Cyburbia: How Life on the Net Has Created a Life of Its Own, (Knopf Canada, 2009), p. 23, 26, 84, 121, 135, 169.
Jerry Mander for permission to reprint from Jerry Mander, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, (William Morrow, 1978), p. 236 and from In the Absence of the Sacred, (Sierra Club, 1991), p.3, 66
Jim Brook for permission to reprint from James Brook and Iain. A. Boal, eds., Resisting the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information, (City Lights, 1995), p. XIII.
Joseph Chilton Pearce for permission to reprint from The Biology of Transcendence (Inner Traditions, 2002), p. 192 and from “Gathering Sparks,” interview by Parabola magazine, selected by David Appelbaum and Joseph Kulin (Parabola Books, 2001), p.73
Kevin Kelly for permission to reprint from “Technophilia,” Technium, 8 Jun 2009, from “Why Technology Can’t Fulfill,” Technium, 26 Jun 2009, from “Expansion of Free Will, ”Technium, 13 Aug 2009, www.kk.org/thetechnium
Kris de Decker for permission to reprint from “Faster Internet is Impossible”, Low-Tech Magazine, Feb 2008
Maggie Jackson for permission to reprint from Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, (Prometheus Books, 2008), p. 165, 226.
Mark Slouka for permission to reprint from Mark Slouka, War of the Worlds, (Basic Books, 1995), p. 9, 26, 98, 148.
Mauro Magatti for permission to translate and reprint from, Libertà Immaginaria: Le Illusioni del Capitalismo Tecno-Nichilista, (Feltrinelli, 2009), p.7, 265.
Michael McLuhan and The Estate Of Corinne McLuhan for permission to reprint from Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, (McGraw Hill, 1964), p. 4, 41, 45, 46, 47, 60, 68, 156, 194, 210, from Understanding Me, (MIT Press, 2005), p.8, 79, 237, 265, and from Marshall McLuhan and Bruce Powers, The Global Village, (Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 95, 97.
Osho International Foundation for permission to reprint from Osho, Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy, (Rebel Publishing House, 1976), p. 190, from The Search: Talks on the Ten Bulls of Zen. (Rebel Publishing House, 1977), p.122, from The Heartbeat of the Absolute,(Rebel Publishing House, 1980), p.88, from Theologia Mystica, (Rebel Publishing House, 1983), from The Book of Wisdom: Discourses on Atisha’s Seven Points of Mind Training, (Rebel Publishing House, 1993) , from The Psychology of the Esoteric, (Rebel Publishing House, 2008).
Quest Books, the imprint of The Theosophical Publishing House for permission to reprint from Ken Wilber The Atman Project, (Theosophical Publishing, 1980), p. 120.
Random House for permission to reprint from Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (Vintage Books, 1993), p.8, 15, 25, 55, 63, 111
Red Wheel/Weiser and the author for permission to reprint A.H. Almaas, Essence: The Diamond Approach to inner Realization (Red Wheel/Weiser, 1986), p.92, www.redwheelweiser.com
Sarah Dopp, wife of late David Noble, for permission to reprint from Noble, David F., The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention, (Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), p. 72, 95
Shambhala Publications and the author for permission to reprint from A.H. Almaas, Diamond Heart: Book One: Elements of the Real in Man (Shambhala Publications, published by arrangement with Diamond Books, 1987), p. 127, from A.H. Almaas, The Pearl beyond Price (Shambhala Publications, published by arrangement with Diamond Books, 1988), p.191, 245, 258, from A.H. Almaas, Diamond Heart: Book Three: Being and the Meaning of Life (Shambhala Publications, published by arrangement with Diamond Books, 1990), p. 1, from A.H. Almaas, The Point of Existence (Shambhala Publications, published by arrangement with Diamond Books, 1996), p. 85, 517, from A.H. Almaas, Spacecruiser Inquiry (Shambhala Publications, 2002), p. 250, 294, 358. www.shambhala.com
Steve Talbott for permission to reprint from Steve Talbott, “Multitasking Ourselves to Death,” Netfuture: Technology and Human Responsibility, 30 Jul 1998 and from “Twilight of the Double Helix,” Netfuture: Technology and Human Responsibility, 12 Mar 2009, www.netfuture.org
Susan Greenfield for permission to reprint from her speech at the Chamber of Lords on August 2009 and from Derbyshire, David, “Social Websites Harm Children’s Brains: Chilling Warning to Parents from Top Neuroscientist,” MailOnline, 24 Feb 2009
Susie Bright and Brenda Laurel for permission to reprint a passage of Brenda Laurel from Susie Bright, Sexual Reality, (Cleis Press, 1992), p.66.
www.monkeyrocker.com for permission to reprint parts of the web pages.
Introduction
Like many people nowadays, much of my personal and professional life is related to technology: I use the Internet for keeping the connection with my work projects and friends wherever I am in the world. I published the first book in Italy about the Internet. I run a blog and a Web magazine, do my investments online, shop on the Net, do interviews by email and Skype, and have even indulged in cybersex. Right now I’m in Asia developing this book – which is full of references to Web articles, blogs and material found only on the Internet – with online support: an editor and writing coach in California, copy editor in India, book designer in Italy, and a printing and distribution service with multiple locations in USA. My life is immersed in the digital loop.
I have been involved in IT since I was a student. As I learned meditation and explored spiritual paths, I developed an inner observer and discovered states beyond the mind. Thus, I found myself going back and forth between processing consciousness and information. Slowly my focus has shifted from what we can do with technology to what technology does to us. As a first-hand explorer, I’ve observed the subtle changes of our massive use of the Net.
Just as a spiritual researcher can go beyond the mind only after having observed and mastered it, it is necessary to enter the digital world to step beyond it. We can’t become aware of its effects without being engaged in it. Since digital technology is unavoidable now, we need to master it without becoming lost in it, using its tools with our full awareness.
In this time, the intensification of mental inputs is a phenomenon that must be kept in balance. Our contemporary culture does not acknowledge anything beyond the mind, but in other traditions the mental world is just one of the aspects of our wholeness. In the West a sort of Cartesian “pure thinking” has been given priority. Although the mind is the best-known organ of thought, it is not the only cognitive modality. Nervous systems have been discovered both in the heart and in the belly, and the global awareness that can be accessed by spiritual practitioners is pervasive and non-localized. Yet these modalities cannot be represented digitally, so they are relegated to the sidelines.
Our technological society militates against uninterrupted conscious attention. Several authors have documented the effects of IT on attention,
