I.
Introduction
1.
"[A] grouping of at least several thousand people with a common
culture, usually a common language, usually a geographic locale, some
significant (usually monumental) buildings and architecture, and a
political structure that is not necessarily unified” (Blaha 2002).
2.
"Civilization is fundamentally a cultural infrastructure of
information and knowledge that serves survival and continuity. What
distinguishes a civilization from a culture is that this
infrastructure, having reached a critical level of complexity,
becomes autonomous from constituent cities, nations, and empires"
(Bosworth
2003). At what point will digital/Internet culture
reach its critical complexity?
B.
With a majority of the world's physical frontiers having been
swallowed up in expansionism, many are looking to digital spaces as a
new frontier—a place where they can establish their own culture and
stake their claim in a rich and vibrant future within the Digital
Age. Whether independent civilizations will emerge from this new
frontier is yet to be determined, but already we see the close
integration of real and virtual 'civilizations' as we know them, and
the future will surely witness further advances in this area. Though
at this stage of its progression the Internet and its substituent
communities are still very much so dependent on real-world
authorities and spaces for their being and maintenance, the
foundations are already in place for the eventual emergence of
virtual civilizations.
C.
Working
Thesis: Virtual
spaces are becoming increasingly independent, and while they
necessarily remain linked to the real world, they nonetheless provide
the social underpinnings for the genesis of digital civilizations
through their facilitation of virtual government, economy, and
culture.
