Dominic Boyer is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences at Rice University. He is the author of "The Life Informatic: Newsmaking in the Digital Era, "from Cornell; "Spirit and System: Media, Intellectuals, and the Dialectic in Modern German Culture"; and "Understanding Media: A Popular Philosophy". He is coeditor ofTheory Can Be More than It Used to Be: Learning Anthropology's Method in a Time of Transition, also from Cornell.