The
spectacular but unsettling reality of faster cycles of change,
breakdown of traditional values and institutions, and many other
symptoms of technological innovation-what makes these necessary is the
subject of this thought-provoking book. All the good intentions of
educators, scholars, politicians, and policymakers will fail if they do
not recognize why literacy as a dominant framework of human activity is
no longer adequate. The current dynamics of human activity is without
precedent. It is not the result of technology, but of deeper forces of
change. The answer to the failure of many seemingly eternal
institutions-government, family, education-is not improvement in the
traditional sense, but a fundamentally new perspective. The digital
paradigm underlying the new civilization provides a basis for this
perspective. But it will be misapplied unless understood within the
broader framework of the driving forces behind human activity.