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Shenk, David. Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut. San Francisco, Calif: Harper Edge, 1997. 250pp. $24
For most of history, the quest for knowledge and its component, information, promised to improve the quality of people's lives. In this century many in the national security community have come to believe that more information will increase the quality of policy makers' decisions. But is information power? Shenk argues that technology has increased the amount of information available to such an extent that very little of it is of any use. Scholars, researchers, and decision makers can become stricken with "analysis paralysis"-either swamped in too much information that is of too little use, or forever waiting for the next piece of information to come in before taking action or making a decision. Shenk...