Holding On to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium / Edition 2

by Albert Borgmann

Overview

Holding On to Reality is a brilliant history of information, from its inception in the natural world to its role in the transformation of culture to the current Internet mania and is attendant assets and liabilities. Drawing on the history of ideas, the details of information technology, and the boundaries of the human condition, Borgmann illuminates the relationship between things and signs, between reality and information.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226066233
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	12/15/2000
Edition description:	1
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	1480L (what's this?)

About the Author

Albert Borgmann is the Regents Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montana. His books include Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life and Crossing the Postmodern Divide, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Information vs. Reality
Pt. 1 Natural Information: Information about Reality
1 The Decline of Meaning and the Rise of Information
2 The Nature of Information
3 Ancestral Information
4 From Landmarks to Letters
5 The Rise of Literacy
Pt. 2 Cultural Information: Information for Reality
6 Producing Information: Writing and Structure
7 Producing Information: Measures and Grids
8 Realizing Information: Reading
9 Realizing Information: Playing
10 Realizing Information: Building
Pt. 3 Technological Information: Information as Reality
11 Elementary Measures
12 Basic Structures
13 Transparency and Control
14 Virtuality and Ambiguity
15 Fragility and Noise
Conclusion: Information and Reality
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Hubert L. Dreyfus

A timely and fascinating book. In the course of Borgmann's history of information, he provides what is, in effect, a genealogy of the sorts of information we take completely for granted.

Editorial Reviews

Borgmann (philosophy, University of Montana) explores the history of information, from its inception in the natural world, through its role in the transformation of culture, to the current Internet mania and its attendant assets and liabilities. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Booknews

...[A] stunningly clear definition of information....For technological boosters and sci-fi writers he leaves room for little argument, unless one wants to pose the now vogue objection: I guess it depends on what you mean by nothing.

Wired