Article June 17, 2002 Issue

RESPONDING to the information tsunami

Stephen T. Gray

WHEN I OPEN MY E-MAIL these days, I think I understand how Adam might have felt after swallowing the first bite of that forbidden fruit.

As the screen fills with 150 unread messages, I see a microcosmic display of all the roiling, groping, clamoring chaos of good and evil in the human condition. Along with the legitimate messages, it seems all the baser instincts are represented, too, from lust to greed and back again.

E-mails from around the world offer everything imaginable—get-rich-quick scams, political rants, motor parts, porn, machine tools, music, movies, mortgages, DVD-copying schemes, diets, life insurance.