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THE PEARLY GATES OF CYBERSPACE

By Margaret Wertheim

Norton, 336 pages, $24.95

Could the Internet be the modern opiate of the masses? In this provocative study, science writer Margaret Wertheim follows perceptions of space throughout Western history, from Dante and Raphael to virtual reality. “Cyberspace is a repackaging of the old idea of Heaven, but in a secular, technologically sanctioned format,” she writes. After reading this book, browsing the net won’t seem nearly so casual.