Technology continues to transform the world with a process that seems to be constantly accelerating. The struggle to understand the way the "new" computer and communications technologies are transforming the world is many-sided. What the essays collected in this issue of the 'Bucknell Review' attempt is a general cultural approach to the notion of ther being a technological "matrix" in which we all now find ourselves "adrift" and of which our experience is often "dread." "Adrift" and "dread" are not single metaphors in the collection. In order to attempt this interrogation of the technological matrix, the essayists have drawn from a variety of disciplines- literature, philosophy, religion, art, media studies- while retaining the substantial contibutions of previous theorists of technology. The main thrust of this collection is to underscore the vast enrichment given to a study of the "new" technologies when approached from a broad cultural standpoint.