In most Western mystical traditions, a great divide separates flesh and spirit. In TechGnosis, Erik Davis, a frequent contributor to The Village Voice and Gnosis (not to mention Wired), asserts that this "great divide" no longer works as a defining myth in a society so deeply impacted by hybrids - cyborgs, Prozac, minds melded by electronic information - that straddle the boundaries between nature and culture. He sets out to uncover the icons, magic, and animist currents that run through the information technologies of our time.
Davis also seems intent on another agenda, however, one largely unspecified but suggested by the title of the book and a parting chapter called "The Path Is a Network." Like the adherents of Gnosticism, a mystical mode of Christianity that arose in late antiquity, proponents of techgnosis hold that by connecting to ("knowing") all aspects of the world, we come to know ourselves, which is the path to enlightenment.
Techgnostics believe isolated and closed systems - be they fundamentalist religions or biotic communities - always degenerate. Entropy sets in once they can no longer exchange matter, information, and energy with the rest of the universe. That, Davis argues, is why so many early modern inventors understood electricity as the alchemical fire that magically transforms energy into information.
Davis promises that while his book might seem conventional (chapters, footnotes, linear argument), it is actually "a resonating hypertext" that will draw the reader into "a fluctuating play network of polarities and hidden networks." What a disappointment, then, to find oneself mired for the next 300-odd pages in territory more akin to doctoral dissertations than interactive Web sites.
Some of the book's more entertaining moments also tend to be its most supercilious. Does it really mean anything that Mitch Kapor, the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, once taught transcendental meditation? Or that Apple bought Grateful Dead tickets for its employees? Geez, no wonder the world can't wait to tap into the hallucinatory bitstream of cyberspace.
TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, by Erik Davis: $25. Harmony Books: +1 (212) 572 2537.
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