 Now, even biology is an information science, a subject of messages, instructions, and code. Life spreads by networking. The body itself is an information processor. Memory resides not just in brains, but in every cell. The law of physics are the algorithms. The universe computes its own destiny. The alphabet was a founding technology of information. The telephone, the fax machine, the calculator, and ultimately, the computer are only the latest innovations. Our furniture includes iPods and plasma displays. Our skills include texting and googling. We are endowed. We are expert. So we see this information in the foreground. But it has always been there. It pervaded our ancestors' world, too, taking forms from solid to ethereal. Every new medium transforms the nature of human thought. In the long run, history is the story of information becoming aware of itself.