The Age of Missing Information

The author decides to watch a full day of television, and spend a full day in the woods, then contrast the two days and figure out which generates more (and more useful) information. For those familiar with this author, it shouldn't be difficult to figure out the results. As usual, he writes in a witty, compelling style. ( )

A fascinating book which holds up over time, despite being very much of the 1980s. McKibben contrasts a full day's programming on the a then-cutting-edge 100-channel cable tv system to the lessons of nature. He learns, not surprisingly, that television leaves out a lot of information (as he amusingly recounts the things he saw on tv, and what he saw and experienced on a hike).

One particularly interesting thought: he talks about how there had been no transformative technologies in his lifetime. Well, the Internet is here now. And it has only accelerated most of the trends he talked about. ( )

A bit meandering and really not the greatest writing overall, but if you stick with it, McKibben does offer a pretty good point (or two or three). The new afterward provides a glimpse into the author's views of how the Internet resembles television in terms of his arguments from the book. A flushed-out treatise on this subject would be welcomed and interesting. ( )

http://www.archidose.org/books/mckibben2.html ( )