| This perspective may also help deal with the frustration (which the author may share with me) in writing textbooks in psychology. Without any organizing theoretical framework, the text tends to degenerate into a catalog of findings, becoming more and more like a telephone directory with many characters but little plot (take another look at those chapter headings). One traditional metaphor for frustration is arranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. A more accurate metaphor in this case is trying to describe the arrangement of the resulting flotsam and jetsam on the beach without mentioning the sea. This is the self-imposed task of scholars using the Standard Social Science Model, in which the mind is considered a tabula rasa. Evolutionary psychologists argue that this "tabula" is far from "rasa" - it has been profoundly shaped by millions of years of evolution. The story told in this book is perhaps best seen as the most recent episode in this human saga as it moves into historical time - the co-evolution of the person and media as extensions. This book is a timely contribution to this timeless saga. It's a tale well told.
Dr. Patricia M. Wallace is Executive Director of the Center for Knowledge and Information Management at the School of Business, University of Maryland. This book is an excellent example of "knowledge and information management". It gives us a considerable boost up that content-within-context hierarchy of raw data, information, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, which constitutes value added in our information society.
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