It is comforting, and I trust not irrepressibly optimistic, to realize that (1) information is not communication, (2) information is about something, (3) the something in every human life must still be that which provides food, clothing, and shelter, (4) some people must still concern themselves with producing these things, (5) the people of the world differ greatly in the way they produce these things (some are still living in caves, still nomads, still tilling the soil by hand or ox, still undergoing their industrial revolution), (6) the United States, for whose people Naisbitt, Tofller, and company write, is not the whole world (thank God!), (7) computers are not, and never will, be capable of wisdom, and (8) data bases do not by themselves produce progeny, so there will always be need of consultants and their bases, the universities. Three cheers for Bowman! He has written what we need to read, digest, and continue to consider. But let us also rememher that &dquo;of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body&dquo; (Ecclesiastes 12:12). I agree with Bowman that those concerned with both business communication and education need to be concerned about the impact of technology. However, I believe that as communicators and educators the technology will be a tool for us, not a replacement. We are the &dquo;high touch&dquo; balance to the &dquo;high tech&dquo; tool. We will be the facilitators of clear communication and of efFective learning, freed from inerely being disseminators of information. I would like to believe Bowman is on target when he predicts that grading papers will be obsolete. However, I have agut-level feeling we will still be grading but on a much higher level, a level machines cannot reach.The Bowman review's best point, however, needs to be explicitly stated.That point is that as concerned communicators and educators we must continue to research and to report findings in order to keep abreast of the change. If we use some of these high tech tools now available such as database searches and data analysis sofhvare, our research pace will be able to keep up
