For those that didn't know why our project landed here, it started with reviewing the works of Sherrie Turkle, the famed Internet Shrink. I have no credentials other than years of building relationships and forming communities in the net. I believe laymen with practical experience have a need to challenge "the thinkers" and write for the common folks like us. It's been a hobby for many years.
Who Professor Turkle is may shed more light than anything I write here: Works included Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French Revolution (1978) The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (1984) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (1995) (paperback ISBN 0-684-83348-4)
Forthcoming book on Robotics Professor Turkle has written numerous articles on psychoanalysis and culture and on the "subjective side" of people's relationships with technology, especially computers. She is engaged in active study of robots, digital pets, and simulated creatures, particularly those designed for children and the elderly as well as in a study of mobile cellular technologies.
Profiles of Professor Turkle have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Scientific American, and Wired Magazine. She is a featured media commentator on the effects of technology for CNN, NBC, ABC, and NPR, including appearances on such programs as Nightline and 20/20.