The name is absent

nationality are irrelevant factors, and where democracy has a new definition
together with the freedom of expression. There is no matter and therefore
there are no properties or identities in the actual definition of these
concepts. The self is understood in Cyberspace as a fluid and diversified
entity, able to be constructed, transformed and modified. Although there is a
clear connection between Cyberspace and the negative vision of the no-space
of The Matrix, according to John Perry Barlow in his Declaration of
Independence of Cyberspace (1996), Cyberspace has the potential of being a
positive virtual environment. It can create a new civilization of the spirit,
more human and fair than in the real world. However, it is important to note
that on-line identities created today in Cyberspace are not necessarily free
from the real world constraints in the opinion of some authors. Thus, Rodney
Jones points out that ‘for the most part, on-line identities are not purely
reflections of off-line identities nor complete reconstructions, but convenient
hybrids of both processes whose uses often have as much to do with what is
happening in the off-line social life of users as their on-line social life’
(Jones, 2001: 13). For authors such as Michael Hardey on-line identities are
irremediably anchored to the off-line lives of the consumers (Hardey, 2002:
581). This way of seeing identities in Cyberspace implies the assumption that
our identity is a solid construction that we drag into our incursions into the
non-space even if we are ‘dressed up’ with a different identity. The potential
to create more consistent and continuous identities in Cyberspace in the
future can make this connection of real and cyber identity disappear, thereby
achieving a cyber-civilization closer to the idea exposed by Barlow.

We are at the beginning of a process, yet we feel completely immersed
in it, almost without having undergone any transition. Nonetheless, we have
to understand that the ‘virtual age’ has just started and until we can address
the anxiety and fears that new technologies produce in us, technological
changes will not be completed and we will not fully control machines.
Therefore, this is a feedback process: we do not understand technology
because we fear it, and we fear it because we do not understand it. This is a
critical moment in the history of western societies to manage, transform,
control and influence the technological development and the creation of

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