Cyber-Mysticism
Wired Magazine's Religion of Technology
Gregory Wolfe
October 1, 1996
When Wired magazine made its debut in the spring of 1993, a great many observers of the technological scene felt that most commercial magazines about computers could not do justice to the larger issues raised by new media like the Internet. The radical changes taking place in the digital realm—from the development of multimedia computers to virtual reality to the explosion of the World Wide Web—deserved serious scrutiny from well-informed, sharp-eyed observers. Before Wired appeared there was only one magazine that made any attempt to cover what has been dubbed the "Digital Age." Known as Mondo 2.000, this neo-hippie mag, edited by people with names like R. U. Sirius, was certainly not an exercise in serious journalism. Mondo 2.000 was then, and is now, a forum for those who desperately want the new digital technologies to become the 1990s equivalent of psychedelic drugs—an ecstatic trip to nirvana. By contrast. Wired promised to be intellectually sophisticated and comprehensive, providing in-depth coverage not only of the technology itself, but also of the political, economic, and cultural impact of that technology. Wired would be hip, no doubt, but it would be written by highly qualified people with real names. Now that Wired is completing its fourth year of publication, it is worth issuing a report card on its performance. The grades, I'm afraid, are mixed. The debut issue made it clear that Wired's guru would be the late Marshall McLuhan, an author who has the dubious distinction of being much-hyped during his lifetime and afterward. The editors quoted from the McLuhan book with the famous title. The Medium Is the Message: "The medium, or process, of our time—electric technology—is reshaping and restructuring patterns of ...
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