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Hi Fellow-Listers I response to Sue's request I would like to nominate: Understanding Media:Extensions of Man Marshall McLuhan's understanding of electric information travelling at the velocity of light has a great deal of insight into the impact of digital media. I am extremely biased as I had the good fortune to work with and co-author two articles with Marshall McLuhan from 1974 to 1980 at the very end of his career. I am currently updating his book UM. The project I am working on is entitled: Understanding New Media: Extending Marshall McLuhan One of the insights I have had is that the effects of electric mass media, namely, integration, interdisciplinarity, decentralization, democratization, and knowledge as a source of wealth creation become even more pronounced with the "new media". My explanation for this is that while information obtained its maximum speed of transmission with electricity, namely, the speed of light we are infact able to access information more rapidly with the "new media" because hyperlinking allows us to jump from one document to another and from oe medium to another. My book will examine how the new media have affected the old media that McLuhan treated in Understanding Media and then examine the impact of the new media (the Net, the Web, blogs, cell phones, notebooks, Palm Pilots, Blacberries, electronic games, i-pods, etc.) on society, culture, commerce and politics. Any suggestions from fellow listers would be most appreciated. If anyone is interested in this project and would like to read one or two of the introductory chapters I would be happy to email them to you. Drop me a line at [log in to unmask] Thanks for your attention. This has been both a resonse to Sue's request and my introduction to the group. All the best - Bob Logan **************************************************************************** * Robert K. Logan - Assoc. Prof. of Physics - University of Toronto * * 60 St. George Street - Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A7 - Canada * * e-mail: [log in to unmask] * * phone: (416)978-8632 or home 416-652-2570 fax:(416)978-1547 * * Author of: The Sixth Language (2000, 2004 2nd edit.) * * The Alphabet Effect (1986, 2004 2nd edit) and * * Collaborate to Compete (2004) * * The Extended Mind: The Origin of Langauge & Culture (in * * press) * **************************************************************************** On Fri, 22 Apr 2005, Sue Thomas wrote: > Iım curious about this: which books have you found most useful in > comprehending your experience of cyberspace? I'm particularly interested in > those books which are not laden with academic theory, since there seems to > be a preponderance of these. What about more 'popular' reading, fiction and > nonfiction? Have you read a good novel about the web, for instance, which > strikes you as authentic? > > Best > Sue > >