The World Beyond Your Head (2014)
by Matthew B. Crawford
I heartily agree with Crawford’s emphasis on the importance of embodied (3D) experiences and his warning that virtual worlds can promote passivity, technology as magic, and false agency. However. I am also very enthusiastic about technological tools as real tools and virtual worlds as deeply enriching. Consider books for example. They are a virtual, symbolic world of their own and were object of
moral panicThe End Of Absence (2014)
by Michael Harris
In his book The End Of Absence, Michael Harris laments the everpresence of digital technology. He writes stylishly and gracefully, but he struggles to get a grip on the argument he wants to make. I feel his yearning for mindfulness and relate to his distrust for apps and devices that leech on our attention for profit, but I balk at his dismay at seeing a toddler attempt to zoom in on the cover of a magazine as if it were an iPad screen.
He’ll grow up thinking about the Internet with the same nonchalance that I hold towards my toaster and teakettle.
This observation’s lack of consequence hints at the lack of clarity in the author’s critique of digital technology. Most frustrating is his lack of self-awareness when recounting past technology alarmists. He tells us of Hieronimo Squarciafico, who in the 1400s decried the printing press for making too many books available, and of Socrates before that, who warned that writing was bad for one’s memory.
Kids these days, for Socrates, were rotting their brains by abandoning the oral tradition.
Harris seems to recognize these two as cynical luddites, but then refuses to acknowledge them as his forerunners. Instead, he sidesteps into a discussion about how tools reshape the psychologies of their wielders. It’s a real shame, because a serious take on the role of digital technology in our lives cannot ignore either its usefulness or its permanence.
It is clear that this technological revolution like all others cannot be evaded without exit from society and that it will continue to transform us. The question is: how do we incorporate these new technologies into our lives? How do we retain their usefulness while minimizing the harm they might do to us?
There are signs, earlier in the book, that the author won’t really be trying to sort out this knot and will content himself merely with perusing and picking at it. He mourns the “end of absence”, but never makes it clear where his concept of “absence” even begins. His vignettes hint at some possible meanings – time without digital technology, time alone out in nature, time to think. Is that all? These goals seem perfectly achievable with a little time management. Has he tried the Pomodoro Technique? Why ring the alarm bell when a simple kitchen timer will do?
in their own time. But I think most of us would consider them indispensable now. Books are fictions divorced from physicality, but is that inherently bad? I don’t think so.
I am several chapters in but already think Crawford’s argument needs work. His critique of “representations” and “abstractions” needs a lot more development in my opinion. I’d invoke him to reflect on his own life to rebalance his argument: he loves to ride motorcycles and fix them up, but he also loves to read books and write them. Surely he needs to make space for symbolic experiences alongside physical ones? I say this despite agreeing with his insight on the surprising hollowness of Choice as Freedom and the way resource-extractive corporations exploit this to harvest wealth from consumers.
All in all I think he makes some fantastic, nuanced points but builds a shaky overarching argument from it. I would love to him to take a second crack at it.