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already be outmoded and superseded before the ink is dried. Books are certainly too slow as a medium to track the changes of communication technologies; monthly magazines barely suffice for the expert. Only electronic communications such as the internet or the television can provide information quickly enough to be even remotely current. As such, the book as a topical source is accidented; it disappears from that position in the social discourses. >>> This does not mean that the book is finished, though. If reality is too swift, if technology outpaces even science fiction, perhaps the book is more suited to another, more traditional use. The book still excels in its ability to present complex, synthesized ideas and to provide them in a form for contemplation. Such a use changes the subject matter and the focus of the book, but it is a deliberately slow medium of communication and is uniquely suited to this end. Further, the act of reading the book, as opposed to being online, links us back in time to other ways of perceiving the world. It establishes a linkage to the physical and psychical p r o c e s s e s o f e a r l i e r t i m e s . >>> Mu c h o f t h i s b o o k i s c o n c e r n e d w it h d e s cr i bi ng t h e differ en ce s be t ween c o m m u ni ca t i o n t ech n ol o gi e s o f t h e present and t hose of t he past . I do not seek merely t o document t he physical and social for ms o f t hese t echnologies, however. Communication as a
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