Reverie and Socialization for the 'Electro-Nomadic Cyborg'

This paper addresses the question of domesticity in the context of the increasingly nomadic condition of the world population. The history of the idea of domesticity is traced and the particular case of the hearth is addressed in detail. The paper speculates as to how user-centric information and communication technology might simulate the social and cultural value held by the traditional hearth. The notion of 'nomadic domesticity', is of course a contradiction. The word nomad implies, from its Greek root, nome, territory, coming from a Proto-Indo-European word for 'to allot', the nomad being someone who wanders about the territory putting their livestock to pasture. The word domesticity, coming from the Greek word, domos, meaning 'house', also implies territory, but this time the enclosed territory of a localized social group, the household, often bound together by family ties. It would seem that what is at stake then is the question of enclosure – what are the options between openness and closedness? Both openness and closedness have obvious appeals and attendant problems. Closedness implies inclusiveness as well as exclusivity. The closed territory of the domos for instance is the realm of the household, a structurally supportive social group. This seems to be very much a central issue here-while it is perfectly possible for the nomad to have a local social group within which they might situate themselves, a band, let's say, of jet-setting businessmen roaming the desert of the airport, it is unlikely: it is less the 'wandering' quality of the nomad that is troublesome so much as the 'loneliness'; less the 'place to hang your hat' that is missed in the domos, as the other hats that are also hanging there. Openness, as in the territory of the nomad, and closedness, as in the territory of the domos, are spatial ideas with important social and cultural implications. An important symbol of the social value of the domos is the hearth, the place of fire within the house, generating light and heat. In the early middle ages in Europe, the hearth was simply an open fire in the middle of the room. Above this was often a lantern-type structure that directed the smoke through a hole in the roof. Sometime