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<span><span>The title of this timely and thought-provoking book, a French bestseller, refers to schoolgirls sending text messages to their friends on their smart phones. Michel Serres, one of France's most important living intellectuals, uses this image to get at something far broader: that humans are formed and shaped by technologies, and that with the advent of computers, smart phones, and the Internet, a new human is being born.These new humans beings are our children—thumbelina (<span style="font-style:italic;">petite poucette<span>) and tom thumb (<span style="font-style:italic;">petit poucet<span>)—but technologies have been changing so fast that parents scarcely know their children. Serres documents this cultural revolution, arguing that there have been several similar revolutions in the past: from oral cultures to cultures focused on reading and writing; the advent of the printing press; and now the complex changes brought about by the new information technologies—changes that are taking place at an accelerated pace and that affect us all.<span><span> <span><span>
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THU MBEL INA THU MBEL INA The Culture and Technology of Millennials Michel Serres Translated by Daniel W. Smith London • New York Published by Rowman & Littlefield International, Ltd. Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannery Street, London SE11 4AB www.rowmaninternational.com Rowman & Littlefield International, Ltd. is an affiliate of Rowman & Littlefield 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706, USA With additional offices in Boulder, New York, Toronto (Canada), and Plymouth (UK) www.rowman.com This English translation copyright © 2015 Rowman & Littlefield International Originally published in French as Petite Poucette © Editions Le Pommier 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: HB 978-1-78348-070-8 ISBN: PB 978-1-78348-071-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Serres, Michel. [Petite poucette. English] Thumbelina : the culture and technology of millennials / Michel Serres ; translated by Daniel W. Smith. pages cm. ISBN 978-1-78348-070-8 (cloth : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-78348-071-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-78348-072-2 (ebook) 1. Information society–Social aspects. I. Title. B2430.S463P5813 2014 303.48'3–dc23 2014029856 TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America For Hélène, the teacher of Thumbelina’s teachers who listens to those who listen to her For Jacques, a poet, who makes them sing CONTENTS About the Author ix 1 Thumbelina 1 2 School 17 3 Society 45 Translator’s Acknowledgments 83 About the Translator 85 vii ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michel Serres is a professor in the history of science at Stanford University and a member of the Academie Francaise. A renowned and popular philosopher and one of France’s leading intellectuals, he is the author of a number of works already translated into English, including Variations on the Body, The Parasite, The Five Senses and Malfeasance: Appropriation Through Pollution? ix 1 THUMBELINA Before teaching anything to anyone, we shoul