There once was a time before the internet, before the automobile, before air conditioning, and television and radio and even before the printing press.  All these inventions and many others, dramatically transformed the ways in which we live.  At the time each was criticized for the ruinous impact it would have.  The printing press was thought to be the end of religion, air conditioning would keep us inside, and not allow us to connect with others. The automobile would destroy community and  television would pollute our brains.

The fact is that each of these inventions changed us and changed the way we lived.  And the result was not good or bad.  It was just different.  It was all part of the process of human evolution.  Ever since man first emerged from the cave, we have been engaged in an ongoing effort to try and shape and define  our man made environment, just  as it continues to try shape and define us.  

Michael Harris thinks we need to reclaim some of that lost world. He details his ideas in The End of Absence: Reclaiming What Weve Lost in a World of Constant Connection.

My conversation with Michael Harris: