I'm currently reading Tubes, by journalist Andrew Blum, which dispels the mythology of the internet by grounding its historical and geographical roots. The book offers a wonderful alternative to the misconception of the internet as an ephemeral and pervasive infrastructure. Though it often seems that it is embedded into the very atmosphere we breath, in reality the internet actually exists much closer to the ground, in a network of tubes that span the circumference of the earth (i.e. the internet is a lot more like mail than telepathy).
In between the descriptions of his journey to "find" the internet, Blum contemplates its function and its impact on contemporary psychology. In chapter two, after describing his visit with Leonard Kleinrock (a founding figure of the internet) he introduces the idea of "aura" as described by Walter Benjamin in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". According to Blum, the internet has accelerated the "fading importance of an objects aura", so much so that the internet's own physical properties are almost entirely erased from our awareness. With the ability to make anything "viral", we sacrifice our own interest in the essence of a tangible memory or experience. I think Blum makes an incredible compelling point here. Our ability to simulate dynamic sensory experiences will surely continue to improve. At what point might we completely alter our physiological capacity to intuit and feel the aura of an experience?