Encounters with Reality on Christine Rosen's the Extinction of Experience | Hacker News Reader

Encounters with Reality on Christine Rosen's the Extinction of Experience

thepointmag.com

8 pointsprismatic6 comments

'When I was fourteen, my family went on .... I have always been allergic to the idea of going somewhere for...'

When the author was 2? Quite insightful!

'“Experiences,” on the other hand, are false, controlled encounters with a pseudo-reality, which Rosen blames mostly on digital technology.'

This trajectory under capitalism was sketched out by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche (and Marx and Freud and others), and explored at length by many subsequent thinkers, e.g. Debord, Baudrillard, Postman, and Derrida if you hold him right. That is, way ahead of the computer explosion at the turn of the millenium.

Let's not forget "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, published in 1932, where he already described consumerism and instant gratification, rejection of science, as well as shallow experiences by consuming "soma" (todays "social media") versus authenticity.

And about 30 years later his book "Brave New World revisited" where he stated that "Brave New World" appeared much faster then he expected.

Much like 1984 by Orwell it doesn't go far enough, both assume there will be humans in control that aren't as strongly or more under the influence of hyper-real superstition, and actively use coercive technologies to keep other people in line without being fully subject to them. It's quite the happy path compared to contemporary 'Reddit occupied government'-style of political governance.

One should also note that Aldous Huxley (like his brother) was a eugenicist, and people being distracted from performing their eugenic duties is a fear that echoes in his supposed dystopies. See e.g. https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1927/10/a-note-on-eug...:

"[D]eficients are not only preserved: they are also permitted to multiply their kind."

IIRC Huxley became rather sceptical in his later works regarding "eugenics" or in general "scientific dictatorship" as a solution to the social problems of humanity.

I may have to re-read his work "Ends and Means" sometime later, but I'm quite sure that calling him an "eugenicist" is too easy.

EDIT: fixed typo

He supported Muller's germinal choice scheme, according to In the Name of Eugenics, p. 262-263: http://pinguet.free.fr/kevles1985.pdf

What sources is it you remember?

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