Marco Senaldi critiques Michael Benedikt's utopian cyberspace vision

In an editorial for Artribune Magazine #31, philosopher and art theorist Marco Senaldi excoriates the early cyber-utopianism of Michael Benedikt's 1991 text "Cyberspace." Senaldi quotes Benedikt's lyrical description of cyberspace as a liberating, anarchic realm that would transcend physical pollution and inefficiency. He argues that such ideological illusions have been shattered by reality: spam, pop-ups, increased paper consumption, and the Pacific Trash Vortex. Senaldi mocks the notion of a "freeconomy" promoted by former Wired editor Chris Anderson, who charged $30,000 for talks on the subject. He concludes by reflecting on the medieval metaphor of dwarfs standing on giants' shoulders, questioning what past giants would think of contemporary digital culture.