The next society is the computer society. It will differ as dramatically from the print society of modernity as that society did from the script society of antiquity. While antiquity dealt with an excess of symbols and modernity with an excess of criticism, the next society will be characterized by an excess of control. According to Niklas Luhmann's speculation, a culture must respond to the structure of an excess of meaning with the selective handling of that excess if society is to survive the introduction of a new communication medium. The studies gathered in this volume elaborate on this thesis and demonstrate how sociology can make interconnected and seemingly opaque phenomena clear through relatively simple ideas.