About
This course examines the blurred lines between not just the physical and virtual world, but our physical and virtual self-identification. It considers challenging questions-and intriguing possibilities-about how we define ourselves when the physical, spatial and temporal limitations of "the real world" are lifted. It will look at the processes or strategies we use to define ourselves as we spend more time online by means of increasingly sophisticated technology, what level of importance are we giving to our sense of American self-identity in the online world (from a historical, social and cultural perspective)? Is it possible to interpret the Constitution to help adjudicate virtual "property disputes"? Are the rights of avatars "self-evident"? And, when we "jack in" (to borrow a term from Gibson's Neuromancer) to the Internet, how much of our American history and culture do we take with us?
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