Magic and Loss

Virginia Heffernan

with Virginia Heffernan

Author of Magic and Loss

Magic and Loss

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 Acclaimed journalist, Virginia Heffernan joins Moe about for a fascinating conversation about the meaning and beauty of the digital revolution.  

Magic And Loss – The Internet As Art

There is no more beautiful and thoughtful body of work that’s been written about the evolution of the internet as Virginia Heffernan’s, Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art.  Coming from someone who was navigating online chat rooms years before most of us knew what a browser was, Heffernan takes us back to the analog days of internet and chronicles the biggest cultural phenomenon of our time.  Her work is elegant, witty and super intelligent; still, as you flip through the book, you’ll quickly see that at its very essence, it’s a captivating story of an shrewd human being living through the digital revolution of the twenty-first century.   

“If it’s ever fair to say that anything has ‘changed everything,’ it’s fair to say so about the Internet.”  She states early on.  “At stake in this cultural transformation are the way we live, the way we think, the way we love, the way we talk, and even the way we fight across the globe.  The Internet is entrenched.  It’s time to understand it – and not as a curiosity or an entry in the annals of technology or business but as an integral part of our humanity, as the latest and most powerful extension and expression of the project of being human.”  

This is one of the more fascinating conversation that I’ve had on the birth and future of the technology; and as you’re about to find out, there’s no more gifted individual to share a perspective on the topic than Virginia Heffernan (@page88).

Here’s a glimpse of what we discuss:

  • The parallels of the Internet and Art

  • The reality of how the digital culture is shaping how we live, love and think

  • How Design maps mental space

  • The web is both a commercial & collaborative space — how do you guard against the latter?

  • Is video the trump card of the internet?

  • The anticipation of Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence

  • How the Internet is shaping our identities