Index

The laws of data smog                          11
Preface                                        15
PART 1 
SIGNAL TO NOISE                                17
1. Spammed!                                    19
2. The black shakes                            35
3. Skeptical in Seattle                        51
4. "A new generation of geniuses"              59
PART 2
VIRTUAL ANARCHY                                77
5. The thunderbird problem                     79
6. Paralysis by analysis                       89
7. Stat wars                                   97
8. The two-by-four effect                      101
10. A nation of lonely molecules               123
11. Superdemocracy                             131
PART 3
A NEW ORDER                                    139
12. Creatures from the info Lagoon             141
13. Dataveillance                              145
14. Anecdotage                                 155
15. The end of journalism?                     163
16. March of the cyber-republicans             173
PART 4
A RETURN TO MEANING                            179
17. What then must be done?                    181
18. Be your own filter                         185
19. Be your own editor                         191
20. Simplify                                   197
21. De-nichify                                 201
22. Don't forsake government; help improve it  205
Acknowledgments                                215
Appendix: how to get off junk mail/phone lists 217
Sources and notes                              219
Index                                          243