This book is dedicated to my loving wife and life partner

Nanci Eileen Seel

who endured many hours of separation over several years while I worked on the manuscript. She has accomplished more than she is aware to make our academic and creative endeavors a success, while creating a warm home for our family. This book would not have been possible without her support.

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The book is also dedicated to two scientists and humanists who intimately understood the digital universe from very different perspectives – and were both visionaries that I wish I could have worked with:

Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider

(1915–1990)

computer scientist and intellect augmentation visionary

and

Neil Postman

(1931–2003)

semanticist and astute critic of technology