Tools

Have you ever read "the alphabet vs. the goddess" by Leonard Shlain? Or been to an Edward Tufte workshop on graphic communications? I am looking for tools to create computer-assisted graphic understanding of issues, problems, solutions, people networks, etc. As soon as I find one, I'll reference it here. I have a mind-mapper program called "MindManager Pro 7" from http://www.mindjet.com but it's only a start.