Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture and faith from the Antipodes.

Cyberspace

Wandering in information

William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer gave data and information a 3-D structure within cyberspace. Information became the landscape. It’s a little bit how I’m feeling at the moment as I stuggle to put my Virtual Theology paper to bed. I have a beginning and I know where I want to end but the middle feels like I’m in a landscape with no map. I can see all sorts of things around me – notes I’ve made, papers I’ve read, half-read books, multiple drafts of sections, innumerable outlines – but no clear path through to the other side. Or rather more than one path and I don’t know which is the best to pursue. It’s not a wilderness – it’s a jungle.

I’m hot and I’m mentally and physically tired. Writing feels like futile chipping away at a mountain with a hammer and chisel. It’s not that the material isn’t interesting – but it’s too interesting and I’m not doing it justice.

I’m hope things will look better in the morning when I revisit my draft. Maybe then I’ll see the critical connections between the parts and something unforeseen will emerge.