The ideas of information as an autonomous variable and of the primacy of theoretical knowledge have been recurrent themes in discussions of the information society. In this series of eight essays, Julian Warner provides a contrasting perspective on: Developing a manifesto for the study of information technologies in human history, Ways in which information technology is differentiated from standard economic concept of productive technology, Historical perspective to copyright, electronic communication and information retrieval, The meta-object distinction as manifested in information retrieval research and system development, Various forms and instruments of labor as related to the design and maintenance of information systems, Past and future developments in the evolution of a discipline.Together, they put a humanistic face on our often-unconscious notions of information technology