Technology…the knack of so arranging the world so that we need not experience it.

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“Technology…the knack of so arranging the world so that we need not experience it.” — Max Frisch Homo Faber (1957)”

This is a book about the disappearance of experience…

Certain types of experience—some rooted deeply in our evolutionary history, such as face-to-face interaction and various forms of pleasure-seeking; others more recent and reflective of cultural norms, such as patience and our sense of public space and place—are fading from our lives. Many of these experiences are what, historically, have helped us form and nurture a shared reality as human beings.

Mediating technologies have been a significant force behind these changes. By “technology” I mean the devices such as computers, smartphones, smart speakers, wearable sensors, and, in our likely future, implantable objects, as well as the software, algorithms, and Internet platforms we rely on to translate the data these devices assemble about us. Technology also includes the virtual realities and augmented realities we experience through our use of these tools. Our integration of these tools into our daily lives has blurred the boundary between “virtual” things—things not grounded in physical reality that we encounter while online or via mediating technologies—and “real” things embedded in physical space.

These technologies mediate between us and our world. For now, we still have some choice in how much mediation we allow. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people lived lives of near-constant mediation out of necessity, as work, education, and social life migrated online. Culturally we were prepared for this shift, given how much time we were already spending using screens large and small to mediate our daily lives, and our evolving preference for such forms of interaction.

That preference encourages the embrace of new forms of mediated experience that do not necessarily improve our interactions as human beings, even as they also bring greater convenience. Our understanding of experience has become disordered, in ways large and small. More and more people mistrust their own experiences. More and more people create their own realities rather than live in the world around them. We can no longer assume that reality is a matter of consensus. We are beginning to see hints of how these new ways of experiencing the world—more mediated, more personalized, more immediate yet less bounded by the realities of the physical world—have altered our understanding of reality.

— Christine Rosen, from the Introduction of “The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World” (W. W. Norton & Company, September 10, 2024)

Book Reviews:

30 thoughts on “Technology…the knack of so arranging the world so that we need not experience it.”

  1. (Warning: long comment/rant)

    I BELIEVE THIS POST IS SPOT ON,
    and pardon me, but scary as hell!

    I just skimmed a book that sounds similar to this one. In fact, you may have mentioned it Dave, in a previous post, I’m not sure.

    It is called: Notes on a Nervous Planet, by Matt Haig

    Perhaps I am a bit late “waking up” here, but I am finally starting to believe that social media is a big part of the reason that our country is so divided… The power of a person with a large following… To post something on Twitter or wherever… That twists the truth… Is incredibly dangerous. It’s not always easy to check to see if the facts presented are correct… or worse, people don’t even question the post… They just accept it as fact.

    And we haven’t even scratched the surface of the dangers of virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Example: should a book generated by AI be able to win a Pulitzer Prize? It won’t be long before this will be a real issue.

    A friend of mine sent me an article where an “AI generated photograph” won first place in a photography contest. Is that OK? Personally, I say NO. But it took incredible intelligence to generate the code that created that AI photo. The question is, can you compare the intelligence of a programmer creating code against the artistic talent of a human who snaps “the perfect photo”? My gut reaction is you separate “human photos” from “AI photos “… and judge them separately. But the debate here is a true story which has happened already!

    Even now, you can put on a virtual reality headset, and spend an entire day in the virtual world of “dungeons and dragons”, and be completely oblivious to the fact that your neighbors house just burned down.

    Sorry for the long post, but this stuff is starting to scare the heck out of me, and even though I wrote software for a living (long before AI)… The way technology is changing our world…
    IS MAKING ME CONSIDER WHETHER OR NOT I SHOULD “UNPLUG/GO OFF THE GRID” WHEREVER POSSIBLE. It’s basically nearly too late to go off the grid completely if you want to do things like manage your money/investments. I suppose it’s not quite too late to keep cash under your mattress and (maybe) be able to function.

    I went down a rabbit hole today because I got sucked into online shopping on “AMAZON PRIME DAY”. I wasted several hours when I should’ve been enjoying the real world. And I regret it. AMAZON PRIME DAY CONTINUES UNTIL THE END OF THE DAY TOMORROW, AND I AM NOT LOGGING BACK ON! I bought a few small items today and saved about $12. These were $16 items that were on sale for $13, and I purchased four items… Hence the $12 savings. So I wasted a beautiful afternoon to save 12 bucks. The beautiful afternoon was priceless and will never come again. I absolutely made the wrong decision.

    (End of rant)
    If you read all of this… Thanks for your time… Now go take a walk and enjoy the real world 🙂

      1. Thank you Paul for articulating the underlying unease that we face daily as we turn on our computers and check in with our phones…. And are exposed to whoever and whatever wants to manipulate and indoctrinate us to think and act in a certain way.

      2. (Long) PPS: It just occurred to me that what we have here MIGHT simply boil down to good versus evil.

        Technology has gotten way ahead of us. What I mean by that is we have new incredibly powerful tools, but we don’t have a way to control whether those tools are used to make the world a better place (by curing disease, for example), or whether they are used for incredible evil (for example by deceiving billions of people, or taking down the power grid on an entire continent).

        “Good” has never fully conquered “evil” in the history of the human race (as far as I know).

        Therefore, I suspect that that the world is spinning seriously out of control more and more quickly, and both wonderful and horrible things (that we can’t even think of yet)… will result from all of this new technology.

        As I write this, I ponder the question: hasn’t history always been this way? Humans have evolved from killing each other with big sticks to killing each other with long range missiles.

        As we evolve and develop technology that has more and more power, the result is that we can accomplish “far greater good”, or create “far more dangerous evil”.

        It is because of this ever increasing technological power that can be used for evil, that I am incredibly frightened.

        (Perhaps I’m stating the obvious here. My apologies if that is the case. I certainly don’t want to waste anyone’s valuable time.)

          2. I installed and played with ChatGBT. This was quite a while ago. I asked it a couple of questions if I recall correctly, and the responses felt artificial and vague. I played with it for less than an hour. It made me uncomfortable, so I deleted it immediately. It is probably a whole lot “smarter” now than it was when I tried it.

            I should mention that I have another friend who is still developing software… Very intelligent guy I went to high school with… He’s using “Advice from AI” to help him write new software more quickly and of higher quality than he could do on his own. He’s doing this right now… Sent me an enthusiastic email about his progress just yesterday. So there’s an example of AI being put to good use. His software is used to do scientific research of some sort, which I don’t understand… Way above my head! 🙂

      3. I believe there are tools that can identify whether photoshop or A.I. was used to manipulate photo, but who’s going to have the tools and use them. And who’s going to believe that they aren’t real is a bigger question.

    2. Thank you for sharing Paul. I locked in on this: “Perhaps I am a bit late “waking up” here, but I am finally starting to believe that social media is a big part of the reason that our country is so divided… The power of a person with a large following… To post something on Twitter or wherever… That twists the truth… Is incredibly dangerous. It’s not always easy to check to see if the facts presented are correct… or worse, people don’t even question the post… They just accept it as fact.” I believe is 100% true. Yet, I’m more concerned about Social Media with their algorithms feeding hate and division because that’s what triggers a response and emotion. More clicks, more eyeballs, more advertising $$$, and we’re in a doom loop. And adversarial powers feeding into this because it knows it feeds unrest and destablizes our country. This too me is frightening.

    3. Agree, Paul! I too have a strong urge to go off-grid… It’s a catch-22 though. Personally, I’ve resisted keeping up with technology and social media for the last several years, and I’m now starting to feel like I’m quite ‘behind’ so to speak. The progression and implications of tech are truly frightening, and I think even more so when we don’t know/understand it. I’m feeling like I have little choice now but to get on board, if only to be more aware of the current/future state of things…

      1. Hi Laila 😊
        Thanks for the comment! You make an excellent point, and I agree… It’s complicated to manage this stuff. I think we have to find “middle ground” (thanks Val 😉). Ignoring new technology leaves us blind to the potential dangers ahead. I guess what I will try to do is to stay “casually up-to-date” on technology… Take advantage of the tech that improves the quality of my life, and avoid the tech that detracts from that quality.

        “The Middle Ground, Is the Sacred Ground.”

    4. Hi Paul,
      we think the intelligence or you could call it the creativity of the user of these programs are their artistic talent. David Hockney shows in his books how artists have been using technical aids since the 17th century (and before) and how it is about developing one’s creativity in using these aids. Besides, the fear of new technologies is a well-known phenomenon in the history of mankind.
      Of course, the new technologies like AI are as good as their user are. We use them everyday in our private life and as a writer and Kb is happy to have these tools.
      Concerning pictures of people: Every picture is not reality but a picture. What matters is the picture and not how it’s produced.
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

  4. Preach, Paul! We are a challenging species – desperate for the next shiny thing and waking up at some point to realize that relationships have been minimized or weakened because of our short attention span. Researching the answers to our own questions is far harder than tapping into AI algorithms. I’m truly scared that we are the catalyst behind our own emotional obsolescence. Honestly, I could go on, but it’s 5AM and I need more coffee and some time just to breathe.

  6. We are moving towards a frightening world life, and these are only the first steps, the answer to the question of what the future will look like… There are so many things to add to what you have talked about, we are encountering new benefits of technology in every field… I think the good ones are always at the beginning and left behind. Because none of us dreamed of reaching these points.

    Christine Rosen really made an important point, and also Paul K. ~ The Flying Lizard, shared same points for all of us… The question should be what will we do… actually we all know we are building our future… But I am afraid this is not what I dreamed, what I expected,… this is not my world,…. Thank you for you all, dear David, and Paul K, Love, nia

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