Reviews and comments

Cyberculture has a history, a deeply layered and non-teleological history, a history full of surprises both good and bad, a history replete with consequences for what it means to speak of the human in 'informatic' or 'post-human' idioms. This passionate, multi-lobed conviction is the generative organ of this wonderful book. The shapes of history matter here as much as its temporalities, as much as its subjectivities. Indeed, shape, time, and subject mutually reconfigure each other in the prefigurings in fiction, science, and technology that this book explores. Prefiguring Cyberculture explores what the editors call the 'continuous present tense.' That is the always unfinished time in which classifications of what may count as human and nonhuman morph within lived technologies that bear the stigmata of the signifying monster called information. Reading this book is an exercise in reconfiguring how we see how we are in this formation called cyberculture. In the process, readers enjoy what binds the authors and editors together--the capacity to be surprised in the belly of the monster.
Donna Haraway, Professor, History of Consciousness Department, University of California, Santa Cruz and author of The Cyborg Manifesto and Modest Witness@Second_Millennium

This book is an intellectual “tour de force” – a seminal work in the fields of cyberculture and human-machine symbiosis. I believe this book, apart from being incredibly inspiring and enlightening now, will become a classic like Donna Haraway’s Simians, Cyborgs and Women; that is, an essential reference volume for many fields of inquiry.
Rob Harle, Leonardo Digital Reviews

A work of great power and great intellectual substance.
David Weinstock, American Communication Journal

I am drawn to revisit this book over and over again. Every essay makes the reader excited to learn about the virtual and real worlds we live in, thus having created a book one will pull off the shelf many more times.
Gerald Ganglbauer, Gangway Reviews

This is an indispensable tome jam-packed with extraordinary insights from writers who hammer home Tofts’ premise that both cyberculture – and its attendant techno-fear – have a long history.
Ashley Crawford, The Age

This collection is a considerable achievement.
Mitchell Whitelaw, RealTime

Prefiguring Cyberculture is a fascinating book for those interested in the history and philosophy of information technology and information science and the impact that these have on society.
Madely du Preez, Electronic Library

For those who think The Matrix trilogy rocked their world, there’s serious cyber thrill in these pages.
FHM (South-East Asia)

The contributor roll-call reads almost like cyberculture’s Hall of Fame.
Pawel Frelik, SFRA Review

It is basically a book to be used as one would use the Internet itself.
Dan Lozer, Science and Theology News

Prefiguring Cyberculture is an erudite exploration of technology and its ever-evolving role within existing and new human social and cultural contexts.
Paul Putman, Student Affairs On-line

I found Prefiguring Cyberculture intensely thought provoking.
Nick Mercer, Resource Centre for Cyberculture Studies

A compelling collection of essays that point to innovative critical and aesthetic forward directions through their insightful examinations of the past. It is a valuable and compelling read for anyone concerned with where technology has come from and where it might go.
Alex Reid, Electronic Book Review

Tofts, Jonson and Cavallaro have put together a mighty inspiration for this most future-oriented of all professions.
Sean Cubitt, Screening the Past

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