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by Michael Pastore
Paperback, July 2008, 180 pages
ISBN: 978-0-927379-15-1
Price: $ 18
Who can seriously deny the immense value of the Internet? It connects us to humanity, allows everyone to publish, and it promotes social, political, and environmental efforts that improve our world. There is, however, a downside to the Information Revolution. Neil Postman, author of Technopoly, explains it in this way:
"Information is now a commodity that can be bought and sold. ... we are glutted with information, drowning in information, have no control over it, don't know what to do with it."
In The Tao of Information, author Michael Pastore vividly explains how he struggled with, and finally solved, his nagging problem: too much information. Concerned that he had been spending an increasing amount of time in front of computer screens, he resolved to reduce this time significantly, and then return to a simpler, slower saner, happier existence amidst nature, creative work, and dialogue with human beings.
The book begins with an exploration of Taoism and ancient philosophies, to help us to restore a balance to our inner lives. Pastore then studies the problem of Information (an expansion of his essay published on Epublishers Weekly in June 2008), and how information is different from data, knowledge, and wisdom. Part three is a captivating essay about how to learn the art of concentration: precisely what is lost whenever we spend hours every day clicking and surfing casually, glancing superficially at headlines and news. The book concludes with the author's practical program about how to harvest the best features of the Internet, in a minimum amount of time.
Pastore believes that we need to find a middle ground between the Luddites who bash computers, and the technological utopians who swear that all our personal and human problems will be solved with more information, or with the latest glitzy gadget or slick-looking software upgrade. The Tao of Information is Pastore's profound meditation about how we might re-educate ourselves for living in many worlds: the captivating world of technology, and the human and natural worlds without it.
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