Pepperell (an artist and author of The post-human condition ) and Punt (a filmmaker who has previously researched 19th century technology) believe the "digital age" paradigm being applied to the new century has too many intellectual restrictions in its reductionist, on-off logic. Instead, they propose the metaphor of a living "postdigital" membrane to describe the dynamic and unpredictable flow between art, computing, philosophy, and science. "The power of the membrane metaphor," they write, "is its dual and contradictory function: like a transparent wall, it both connects and divides." They employ the metaphor here to explore how our understandings of imagination, technology, and human desire are changing in whatever one chooses to call this new era. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)