In the introduction, Janet H. Murray brings up several themes that arise from the book's many authors. One recurring theme is the notion that we must try to organize, catalogue, and systematize our ever-complicating lives. Murray addresses the rise and subsequent reliance on computers, which is not fully explored by many of the book's contributors who came earlier. For those who have made theories, she divides between engineers and humanists. "The humanists see the contradictions and limitations of the great systems of thought and it causes them to question the very project of systemized thinking" (4). This issue is especially relevant today, when we have turned on the "super particle collider," which will help reveal how the big bang actually occurred and how the world as we know it began. Does our growing technology and search for answers get the better of us? How does this information actually improve us as individuals? As a society? Should we create this technology just because we have the capacity to?
Later in the introduction, Murray breaks down the four main qualities of the computer as: "procedural, participatory, encyclopedic, and spatial properties" (6). She then goes on to ask the million-dollar question, "If the computer is a universal machine, capable of representing anything, then can it represent all of human knowledge?" I'm not sure if this will ever be possible, but just the online or gaming realms on the computer have created very real feelings. People create "second selves" or online personas, and play games with an energy that may not exist in "reality."
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