Ok, so lets say that some guy named “Austin Powers” was frozen back in the sixties and unfrozen in 2003. Now the only techo devices that he knew of before was reel to reel tape, CB Radio and exploding toothpaste. What if he wanted to catch up on all the latest and greatest in new media but found himself too afraid and technically challenged. This is when you have to look to the dead. By dead I mean, print...Like in books that you find in the library or on the shelf. Well, he is in luck because “The New Media Reader” is in book form and has everything to get him up to speed. This reader collects the texts, videos, and computer programs--many of them now almost impossible to find--that chronicle the history and form the foundation of the still-emerging field of new media. General introductions along with short introductions to each of the texts, place the works in their historical context and explain their significance. The texts were originally published between World War II--when digital computing, cybernetic feedback, and early notions of hypertext and the Internet first appeared--and the emergence of the World Wide Web--when they entered the mainstream of public life. The texts are by computer scientists, artists, architects, literary writers, interface designers, cultural critics, and individuals working across disciplines. So after reading this short 823 page novel he would have learned that all anyone needs is either to Google it or Wiki it.
http://books.google.com/books?id=DQYXoRx9CcEC&printsec=frontcover#PPP1,M1
