属于文化的归还于文化，但世界还是政经的！

Main purpose of the book:
cultural perspective: to explain the nature of myth, to describe its value for understanding cyberspace, to connect it with wider myths about end of history, geography and politics, to compare it with similar myths about telegraph, electricity, telephone and broadcasting (p141)

1. When could the technology really become powerful?
When it goes into banal life, withdraw as a presence (like electricity, radio, etc.)

2. Myth: mask truth, and overcome in mind / stitch together the contradictions in reality (p28, p53)
The task for a critique of myth: 1. assess whether they conform to reality or not, 2. "assess what myths mean to the people who produce and believe in them, and what they reveal about the society that sustains them" (p31)

3. The meaning of myth
Both gurus, experts and the MASS are making or following the myth, why?
mass （无力反抗现实之下的希望p13-14）(myths don't only include de-politicised speech, but also pre-politicised imagination)

3. Two versions of myth about cyberspace:
myth as distortions made by storytellers (mythmakers): p36-41, ch4
myth as an attractive vision or template of perception made by companies, govs, media: p41-46
PLUS, 6 prominent metaphors of cyberspace: digital library, information highway, e-commerce, virtue community, digital ecology, narrative stream (p50-52); they are different from myth, because they don't aim to solve contradictions, but only to describe cyberspace
【对于mythmaker 的分析其实就是ideologue 的分析，点很好，抓的人物也都很有代表性，叙述也比较清晰的。但是在我看来这种类似于‘恶意的欺骗’还是‘真诚的吹嘘’的区分比较模糊，，貌似也没太大意义。但是对于媒体在其所谓“中立叙事”中起到的鼓吹作用的思考，比较有意义，可以深入一下。】

4. Myth and Cyberspace:
A) the end of history:
Fukuyama (markets, science, and technology are inherently free, democratic, and neutral, thus will bring democracy; this argument does not provide enough evidence and ignores the problems, e.g. concentrated power of large businesses, p56-62);
Bell (the end of ideology, but he is fundamentally different from Fukuyama, because he points out criticisms, uncertainty, problems, and division of existing 'post-industrial' society, e.g. business corporation, conflicts between individual market wants and society needs, conflicts about gratification and control between capitalist structures and culture of modernism, conflicts between law and morality) 【所以作者的结论是，Bell与福山有本质的不同，他不能算作是mythmaker。这里有两个问题比较有趣：1. 作者对于analytical thinking 和 mythical thinking的区分（前者对生活中的impurities, tensions, conflicts and contradictions进行细致的分析，而后者进行分析只是为了更强有力的promote a transcendent vision,）以及主流话语讨论的变迁（过去讨论信息、技术、网络带来的社会结构、文化的变迁，而现在倾向于听到资本主义的胜利、新技术带来新的历史阶段等）p68】
Noosphere (a group of people whose ideas could bridge the end of history and cyberspace, Teilhard, McLuhan, Negroponte, Kurzweil: technology could help people to overcome human problems, e.g. life's limitations)
The young will lead us(the division between generations could replace the traditional gaps between, e.g. income, wealth, gender, race, btw haves and have nots)
结论：calls for a reconciliation of both myth and history (it's important to understand myths' meaning for people, but it's more important to see how this mutual constitution btw culture and pe can strength old forms of power, p83) ; history will not come to an end, its elements will enter into the order of recyclable (Baudrillard, p84)

B) The death of distance
No borders for territory (no nation states), structure (towards horizontal institution) and social space (towards a global way of life): free people from spatial constraints with all its confining economic and social implications. Body transcend physical limitations.
Problem: geolocation software and privacy issues; geography is still important for solidarity;
The main problem is: "cyber-selfishness" (Borsook 2000) to escape fighting in physical world (p97-98)

C) The end of politics
Promise to empower people
to end insecurities (e.g. SDI, Strategic Defense Initiative, no practical, but promise to sweep insecurities, also relate to political and economic interests)
to end vertical relationships of power/authority (PFF, A Magna Carta for the Cyberspace Age, promise a flux, transparent, open de-politicalised system with universe interconnectedness, the Internet will bring new types of citizens and social relations, it is democracy p115)
Problem: radical changes will come without the production of a society (Kitchin 1998), without having to do much of the hard work (e.g. face-to-face encounter to build neighbourhoods and communities), identity become a by-product of people's temporary condition of being connected and class struggle ends

5. The ever-ending story (CH5)
technological sublime and historical amnesia happen every time a new technology come into use (historical narrative: telegraph, electrification, telephone, radio, television)
"WHY do people so willingly acquiesce, indeed actively affirm, myths of the end?" (p117)
PE forces, PLUS, cultural meanings: our era will to transform the world

6. World trade centre represent the myths about post-industrial society

7. Political economy of cyberspace (what the myths conceal)【最后终于回到政经了，想必大神已经忍了很久了2333】
digitisation and commodification (to measure the commodity and monitor purchases, advertising, labour issues)
integration and concentration (corporate power)
de-regulation (contradictions between market and government, the government's role: to set technical standards, to expand local access, to ensure privacy)

8. Any hope?
"In essence, myths can end politics, can serve to depoliticize speech, but they can also restore it by providing a rich cultural dimension that deepens political understanding" (p172). (anti-globalisation movements, better understanding of labour, environmental issues behind the brands and globalisation)
It seems that we still need the intervention and regulation from the government for public discussions, but at the same time we need to be careful about the political powers (p182-183)
【有点鸡肋，最后就是新自由主义药丸，还是需要政府，但是要小心政府滥用权力。】


merits:
1. 最突出的应该是将文化研究与政经融合，开始强调文化研究对于理解各种社会思潮以及背后的政经发展的重要性。尤其提到了地域性文化研究的重要性 (ground research in the local)，与政经的宏大叙事( grand narratives)相对，这种当地的，主体性的解读也十分重要。并且多次提到了对于建设local diversified community重要性，及其Williams所说的好斗的排他主义("militant particularism")在political struggles中的重要性。
2. 另一个角度对历史进行考察，详实的叙述，审视每次新技术带来的myth，以及其后的发展，思考，是什么阻碍了新技术成为革命的力量？
3. 对于反新自由主义myth，也提到了每次科技进步的时候，政府在背后起到的不可忽视的作用（以及像世贸大厦建立时候的政府推波助澜）
4. 将互联网迷思与更大的后工业化社会背景联系起来

demerits:
1. 虽然作者一再强调文化研究与地域研究（在地性？）的重要性，但是更多的还是宏大叙事。。。大概政经学者没什么功夫去做实地研究？不过感觉很适合作为博士生们的研究课题，真正从大众为主题的角度进行理解，subjective understandings
2. 不是一部理论性较强的学术著作，更像是一本大众读物（？）。很多点感觉可以更深入一些，比如myth明明就是ideology啊啊啊，可能是为了避免这个太有争议的词汇？说了一点点Gramsci和Williams，提到了很多次myth作为去政治化、去阶级意识、掩盖冲突的作用，不过并没有深入，不知道为什么。
3. Mosco的语言逻辑仍然十分强大，这点可能是中文翻译很难做出来的，然而英语词汇又一如既往的晦涩，没有中文翻译没法快速的阅读（这里给中文翻译点个赞，能看出来译者十分用心，译者注做的很到位，并且感觉对传播领域很熟悉，小错误不到位的地方不是很扎眼）