Derrick de Kerckhove’s ambitious new book of techno-theory, Connected Intelligence, follows up on his preceding work, The Skin of Culture, published only two years ago. It seems much has changed in that time, or at least the focus of de Kerckhove’s work has changed. For where The Skin of Culture sought to align communication theory with culture generally, and was mostly predictive in its arguments, Connected Intelligence is a descriptive survey of where technology stands today.

De Kerckhove, who acts as director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, provides often surprising news of breakthroughs, experiments, and programs that illustrate the extent to which the Web and its supplements have already advanced. Working from the assumption that the advent of universal connectivity is unavoidable and that as individuals we must either crash or integrate, the book goes on to consider what this new order will mean for books, newspapers, museums, libraries, as well as the disparity between African and Western economies. A lot to cover in 250 pages, but de Kerckhove largely succeeds in outlining the issues for further argument if not thoroughly fleshing them out himself.

The writing in Connected Intelligence is always intelligent and pithy, and includes a liberal sprinkling of McLuhan witticisms, although it is occasionally guilty of lapsing into excessive reliance on techno-jargon to do the work of explaining difficult concepts. Nevertheless, there is a stronger moral/political voice in this work than the earlier Skin of Culture that is often passionately expressed. For example, de Kerckhove calls for governments, as opposed to giant corporations, to “assume leadership in promoting connectivity” in order to prevent the same thing happening to the Web that has happened to telecommunications and cable television.

Connected Intelligence is a dense book. Perhaps a little too dense. One wishes de Kerckhove would slow down at times in order to further unravel complicated points he tends to toss off and leave behind. But to be fair, the author cannot be solely blamed for this. With technology advancing at its current dizzying rate, there’s not enough time for a lone figure, even one as brilliant as de Kerckhove, to offer a fully realized critical evaluation of what these advances will mean to the world before the changes are already in place. Pity.