The digital era promises, as did many other technological developments before it, the transformation of society: with the computer, we can transcend time, space, and politics-as-usual. In The Digital Sublime, Vincent Mosco goes beyond the usual stories of technological breakthrough and economic meltdown to explore the myths constructed around the new digital technology and why we feel compelled to believe in them. He tells us that what kept enthusiastic investors in the dotcom era bidding up stocks even after the crash had begun was not willful ignorance of the laws of economics but belief in the myth that cyberspace was opening up a new world. Table of Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 The Secret of Life 1 2 Myth and Cyberspace 17 3 Cyberspace and the End of History 55 4 Loose Ends: The Death of Distance, the End of Politics 85 5 When Old Myths Were New: The Ever-Ending Story 117 6 From Ground Zero to Cyberspace and Back Again 141 Notes 185 References 197 Index 213