I usually only post about American Libraries, the magazine of the American Library Association, if I am going to make fun of it. The November 2009 issue has great columns by Joe Janes and Kate Sheehan, but however, also an interview with David Weinberger.

I just may love to hate this guy, but he reads a lot of interesting stuff and talks about it, so I was intrigued by his comment that “Andy Clark points [out] in a book called Being There … that our species externalizes consciousness. Take away a physicist’s whiteboard, and she can’t do her work.” He is also referencing Marshall McLuhan and stating that the web has brought “epochal change”. I immediately related to the quip about externalizing consciousness because I use writing (e.g.) to help organize my thoughts.

But I shudder at Weinberger’s use of “species” - isn’t what he describes a cultural, learned behavior? Substituting nature for nurture is a rhetorical device that bugs the hell out of me. I care enough to ILL Clark’s book to find out the deal. It looks like it was on cognitive science, was published 11 years ago and may be a little dated.

I think this means that I’m either crawling under a rock or coming out from one, but at least now I can recycle this magazine!