Data Trash: The Theory of the Virtual Class
Smelling the Virtual Flowers and counting the Road-kill on the Digital Superhighway
by Arthur Kroker and Michael A. Weinstein

'Data Trash' explores our obsession with cyber-culture, and our fascination with the disappearance of the human body in virtual reality. As the world rushes headlong down the information superhighway, few people have taken the time to stop and smell the (virtual) flowers. Arthur Kroker, described as 'the Marshall McLuhan for the 1990s,' thinks the time is right to start counting the road kill. Data Trash takes a hard look at the political and cultural impact of virtual reality. Employing an analysis of 'event-scenes' such as advertising, the birth of high-tech research labs, and the explosive growth of the Internet, Kroker and Weinstein map the political economy of cyber-culture, offering new theories and tracing the 'will to virtuality' that has become the obsession of today's new technological class.