Cyber enhancement.

ME++: THE CYBORG SELF AND THE NETWORKED CITY

By William J. Mitchell. London: MIT Press. 2003. [pounds sterling]18.50

Bill Mitchell is Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences and until recently Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT. This book constitutes the last in a trilogy of books, the previous two being City of Bits and etopia, that evangelize cyberspace. In ME++ Mitchell sees digital technologies as semi-invisible prostheses that enhance the human body's boundaries, sphere of influence and effectiveness. If this is the case, which Mitchell feels that it is, then architectural and city space is expanded. If the body is a conduit for experiencing architecture then a cyber enhanced body can experience more and different spaces, therefore architecture and planning change. It is a simple evolving symbiotic relationship. This notion is central to the book which then argues that the apartheid between what is real and what is virtual must be ended. Most of the more interesting architectural research at the moment is being conducted in the blurred area between the virtual and the actual. The potential of this juxtaposition is merely hinted at in this book. Space, time, duration, wearables and digital interconnectedness are all critical to these evolving spaces. Mitchell has views on the social and political implications to these ideas. It is good to hear an academic, particularly an American one, voicing doubts about technologically mediated isolationism and focusing on our interconnected global humanity. One is intensely aware, like its author, that this book was written in the shadow of 9/11. 'We are tied together by our networks--both materially and morally--like climbers on a rope. If we are to reap the benefits of our electronically expanded social, economic and cultural circles without succumbing to their dangers, we must recognize that they actualize our common humanity.'