Reviewed by Kevin Farley, Collection Librarian for the Humanities
In TechGnosis: Myth, Magic + Mysticism in the Age of Information, Erik Davis (http://www.techgnosis.com/) writes in the tradition of the Canadian media philosopher Marshall McCluhan (http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/), who initiated the study of the effects of mass media — particularly advertising — on identity, consciousness, and individual freedom and autonomy. How much freedom is truly possible, McLuhan asked, in an electronic media environment that seems to program and control all of our thoughts and desires? Davis continues McLuhan's critique of media, arguing that, unlike past cultures, in which information was seen as a tool (one of many) that possessed greater or lesser degrees of usefulness, depending upon the nature of the information itself, in the Digital Age "People began to devote themselves more and more to collecting, analyzing, transmitting, selling, and using the stuff." Davis views the often unseen control of information — despite the seeming freedom it possesses on the Internet — as a fact never to be forgotten: "From the moment the first scribe took up a reed and scratched a database into the cool clay of Sumer," he writes, "information flow has been an instrument of human power and control — religious as well as economic and political." Part historical overview, part journal, and part stream-of-consciousness, TechGnosis bristles with Davis' musings on contemporary media and computer culture. Perhaps Davis' most important arguments address the dangers of the human tendency to invest tools and artifacts — including computers and the Internet — with the magical ability to create an eternal order and perfection within ourselves and in the world itself.
