Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now (35 page)

Likewise, although this is hardly the longest book I have written, it has been by far the hardest to complete. And I don’t think that’s because the subject was intrinsically more difficult or complex (or that I have grown more feeble), but because the environment in which I’m writing and my audience is living has changed. It is not you or I or the information that’s so different, but the media and culture around us all.

At one point, I began developing marginalia alongside the text through which I could chronicle whatever it was I was
supposed
to be doing instead of writing at that moment. I maintained a separate vertical column on the edge of the page filled with the lunches I’d turned down; the emails that went unanswered; the missed offers to earn a buck; and all the interviews, articles, and appearances that could have led to something. But that list soon took up more space than the main body of text, so I stopped before it demoralized me into paralysis.

As I continued on, head down, I began to think more of the culture to which I was attempting to contribute through this work. A book? Really? How anachronistic! Most of my audience—the ones who agree with the sentiments I am expressing here—will not be getting this far into the text, I assure you. They will be reading excerpts on BoingBoing.net, interviews on Shareable.net, or—if I’m lucky—the review in the
New York Times
. They will get the gist of the argument and move on.

Meanwhile, in the years it has taken me to write this book—and the year after that to get it through the publishing process—I could have written dozens of articles, hundreds of blog posts, and thousands of Tweets, reaching more people about more things in less time and with less effort. Here I am writing opera when the people are listening to singles.

The solution, of course, is balance. Finding the sweet spot between storage and flow, dipping into different media and activities depending on the circumstances. I don’t think I could have expressed present shock in a Tweet or a blog post or an article, or I would have. And taking the time to write or read a whole book on the phenomenon does draw a line in the sand. It means we can stop the onslaught of demands on our attention; we can create a safe space for uninterrupted contemplation; we can give each moment the value it deserves and no more; we can tolerate uncertainty and resist the temptation to draw connections and conclusions before we are ready; and we can slow or even ignore the seemingly inexorable pull from the strange attractor at the end of human history. For just as we can pause, we can also
un
-pause.

Thanks for your time.

A
cknowledgments are usually remembered
more by those left out than those included. My accidental omissions will no doubt be compounded here, as this book has been in the works one way or another since around 1993. So to everyone who helped in one way or another over the past twenty years, thanks. You know who you are and I hope you see your impact on this work.

Were it not for my current agents, Katinka Matson, John Brockman, and Max Brockman, I may not have had the courage to put forth this sort of book in the first place. Your faith in my ability to dig deeper and write the books I was born to write has made me a better, smarter author. And thanks to Russell Weinberger, for bringing my books to the world.

As for you, Niki Papadopoulos, we may have been brought together by circumstance, but sometimes the Fates really do make their will known. It’s great to have a partner in crime, especially in a world where new ideas are all but verboten. Thanks also to Gillian Blake, who originally pushed me to pursue presentism as a book, David Moldawer for making a home for it, and Courtney Young for encouraging me to keep considering the positive implications of present shock.

Thanks also to Natalie Horbachevsky, whose care and diligence made the editorial process painless, and to my extremely promising publicists Christine D’Agostini and Whitney Peeling, whom I am thanking in advance for having made sure you know this book exists. If early indications are to be trusted, we are all in good hands.

I had research help along the way as well, most notably from Rachel Rosenfelt, now editor of
TheNewInquiry
, and my boss of sorts. She found books and articles I wouldn’t have on my own, and she acted so enthusiastic about them that I actually read them without being forced. Andrew Nealon also helped me organize my thoughts and references during the early stages of preparing the manuscript. He did so without judgment, which was both necessary and supportive during that floundering period.

Frank Kessler, Joost Raessens, and Mirko Schäfer, of Utrecht University, waited patiently for various drafts of my doctoral dissertation while I wrote this book (and, to be honest, the six books preceding this one). Working with them these past ten years upped my game considerably and brought much greater rigor to my writing. Thanks also to media ecologists everywhere, who helped me to understand how media create environments and why this matters.

Ian and Britta Alexander of EatMedia provided the physical and, in some cases, emotional space I needed to write this book. In addition to providing me an office, a computer, and connectivity, Ian fended off distractions as they came through the door and over the Internet. You are true friends. Brian Hughes, the latest member of the EatMedia family, proofread my text and got me through the final stages of manuscript production. He smiled the entire time.

Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski, founders of Codecademy, deserve special thanks. They extended their invitation for me to work with them bringing code literacy to the world, and then waited patiently for me to finish this book before I could begin. They understand better than almost anyone how the best way to navigate the increasingly programmed landscape ahead is to know something about programming, oneself. Having their adventure ahead served as a light at the end of the long tunnel.

Many people have engaged with me about the ideas in this book. These ideas are as much yours as they are mine. You are, in an order that makes sense to me on a fractalnoid level, Dr. Mark Filippi, Ryan Freilino, Jerry Michalski, Kevin Slavin, Curtis Faith, Howard Rheingold, Terence McKenna, Stewart Brand, Ken Goldberg, Clay Shirky, Amber Case, Cintra Wilson, Jonathan Lethem, Samantha Hinds, David Bennahum, Walter Kirn, Steven Bender, Jeff Newelt, Barak Goodman, Rachel Dretzin, David Pescovitz, Janet Sternberg, Lance Strate, Mark Stahlman, Paul Levinson, Alan Burdick, Renee Hobbs, Nathalis Wamba, and Hermenauts everywhere. Thanks also to my mother, Sheila, who passed away before I started this one but always thought it was “a good idea.”

Finally, and most important, my ever-supportive wife, Barbara. You have lived through enough of these now to know I will make it through—even when I don’t. Thanks for knowing this would work, and agreeing to live with a crazy author in the first place. Love, Douglas.

PREFACE

1
. The number of births reported in New York hospitals nine months after 9/11 increased by 20 percent. For all the statistics, see Tom Templeton and Tom Lumley, “9/11 in Numbers,”
Observer
, August 17, 2002.

2
. As
Huffington Post
writer Lee Harrington explained, “I always told myself that ‘one day’ my marriage would get better. Then one day the future stopped.” See Lee Harrington, “Falling Man Helped Me Face My Own Fears,”
Huffington Post
, September 7, 2011, www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-harrington/falling-man-marriage_b_951381.html.

3
. See any of the dozens of websites and publications that have popped up to debunk climate change, such as GlobalWarmingHysteria.com or GlobalWarmingLies.com, or S. Fred Singer,
Hot Talk Cold Science: Global Warming’s Unfinished Debate
(Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2001). For an account of the hacked global warming emails, begin with Katherine Goldstein and Craig Kanalley, “Global Warming Emails: Hack Raises Ethical Questions, Hoax and Scam Claims,”
Huffington Post
, March 18, 2010, www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/23/global-warming-emails-hac_n_367979.html.

CHAPTER 1: NARRATIVE COLLAPSE

1
. Mark Turner,
The Literary Mind
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

2
. Author Ursula K. Le Guin, 1979, quoted on www.qotd.org.

3
. Alvin Toffler, “The Future as a Way of Life,”
Horizon
7 (3), 1965.

4
. Ibid.

5
. Joseph Campbell,
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968).

6
. Aristotle, quoted in Robert McKee,
Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
(New York: ReganBooks, 1997).

7
. See my book
Playing the Future
(New York: HarperCollins, 1996) for more on the narrative novelty of these sorts of TV shows and movies, though with different conclusions about their significance.

8
. Hampton Stevens, “The Meta, Innovative Genius of ‘Community,’”
Atlantic
, May 12, 2011.

9
. Zadie Smith quoted by James Wood in a review of
White Teeth
, “Human, All Too Inhuman: The Smallness of the ‘Big’ Novel,” New Republic Online, July 24, 2000, www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/human-all-too-inhuman.

10
. Mike Freeman, “Saints Took Common Practice of Bounties to a New, Dangerous Level,” CBSsports.com, March 5, 2012.

11
. All three quotes are from Jon Baskin, “Steroids, Baseball, America,”
Point
4 (Spring 2011).

12
. Bill Simmons, “Confronting My Worst Nightmare,” ESPN.com, May 9, 2009.

13
. Murray Chass, “On Baseball; Senate Posse Is Passing Steroid Buck to Baseball,”
New York Times
, March 16, 2004.

14
. Tom Van Riper, “MLB Faces Fourth Straight Attendance Decline,”
Forbes
, September 7, 2011; Associated Press, “NFL Ticket Sales Decline for Third Straight Year,” September 8, 2010.

15
. Terri Judd, “Teenagers Risk Death in Internet Strangling Craze,”
Independent
, January 6, 2010.

16
. Walter Lippmann,
Public Opinion
(New York: Free Press, 1922).

17
. Steven Livingston, “Clarifying the CNN Effect: An Examination of Media Effects According to Type of Military Intervention,” PDF, John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, 1997.

18
. For a look at Luntz’s process, see my PBS
Frontline
documentary, “The Persuaders” (2004).

19
. “Transcript of President Bush’s Prayer Service Remarks,” National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for the Victims of the Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, Washington National Cathedral, September 14, 2001, www.opm.gov/guidance/09-14-01gwb.htm.

20
. From 1985 to 2005, the number of Americans unsure about evolution increased from 7 percent to 21 percent, according to a study by the National Center for Science Education, cited in “Public Praises Science; Scientists Fault Public, Media,” Pew Research Center, July 9, 2009, www.people-press.org.

21
. According to Gallup data as of 2010, 48 percent of Americans believe the seriousness of global warming is exaggerated, up from 31 percent in 1997. Frank Newport, “Americans’ Global Warming Concerns Continue to Drop,”
Gallup Politics
, March 11, 2010, www.gallup.com.

22
. Richard Edelman in Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber,
Trust Us, We’re Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future
(New York: Tarcher/Penguin, 2002).

23
. Lymari Morales, “In U.S., Confidence in Newspapers, TV News Remains a Rarity,”
Gallup Politics
, August 13, 2010, www.gallup.com/poll/142133/confidence-newspapers-news-remains-rarity.aspx.

24
. Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, September 22, 2011, www.people-press.org.

25
. Kasun Ubayasiri, “Internet and the Public Sphere: A Glimpse of YouTube,” Central Queensland University, 2006, and updated, on EJournalist.com, http://ejournalist.com.au.

26
. Andrew Keen,
The Cult of the Amateur
(New York: Crown, 2007), 48.

27
. Mark Lilla, “The Tea Party Jacobins,”
New York Review of Books
, May 27, 2010.

28
. David Frum, “When Did the GOP Lose Touch with Reality?”
New York
,
November 20, 2011.

29
. Tommy Christopher, “Van Susteren Explains Why Anti-Fox Clip with Occupy Wall St. Protester Got Cut,” MediaIte.com, October 3, 2011, www.mediaite.com/tv/van-susteren-explains-why-anti-fox-interview-with-occupy-wall-st-protester-got-cut.

CHAPTER 2: DIGIPHRENIA: BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

1
. See Nicholas Carr,
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2010) and Sherry Turkle,
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
(New York: Basic Books, 2011).

2
. Look at Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas for the earliest notions of real time and existence compared with human-defined days and years. See Lewis Mumford, Harold Innis, David S. Landes, and Jeremy Rifkin for understandings that bring us through the Industrial Age and even into digital culture. My own historical and theoretical frameworks build on their works.

3
. For more on this pre–Axial Age spiritual outlook, see Karen Armstrong’s
A History of God
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1993).

4
. Walter Ong,
Orality and Literacy
(New York: Routledge, 2002), 69.

5
. See my book
Nothing Sacred
(New York: Crown, 2003).

6
. Jeremy Rifkin,
Time Wars: The Primary Conflict in Human History
(New York: Touchstone Books, 1989).

7
. David S. Landes,
A Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983), 10.

8
. Robert Levine,
A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently
(New York: Basic Books), 1997.

9
. David Montgomery,
The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865–1925
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).

10
. Mark P. McDonald, PhD, “The Nature of Change Is Changing: The New Pattern,” April 12, 2010, http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/2010/04/12/the-nature-of-change-is-changing-the-new-pattern/.

11
. Dave Gray, “Change Is Changing,” October 26, 2011, www.dachisgroup.com/2011/10/change-is-changing/.

12
. Stefanie Luthman, Thomas Bliesener, Frithjof Staude-Müller, “The Effect of Computer Gaming on Subsequent Time Perception,”
Journal of Psychosocial Research in Cyberspace
3 (1), June 2009.

13
. Rebecca Maksel, “When Did the Term ‘Jet Lag’ Come into Use?”
Air & Space Magazine
, June 18, 2008. Interestingly, it was subsequently discovered that west-to-east travel is much more challenging to biorhythms than east-to-west. The inaccuracy of the initial study’s results may be because they used only four test subjects.

14
. Ibid.

15
. SAIC Information Services, “NASA and the FAA: A Technology Partnership for the New Millennium,” www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/docs/chicago/fcp.htm.

16
. This is a new but scientifically researched field. See Roger Lewin,
Making Waves
(Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2005).

17
. Maggie Fox, “Shift Work May Cause Cancer, World Agency Says,” Reuters, November 30, 2007.

18
. Clay Shirky,
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age
(New York: Penguin, 2010).

19
. Lisa Napoli, “As If in a Seller’s Dream, the Bags Fly Out of the Studio,”
New York Times
, December 7, 2004.

20
. Ibid.

21
. Gary Wolf, “Tim Ferriss Wants to Hack Your Body,”
Wired
, December 2010.

22
. By 2007, 43 percent of email users said the first thing they do when they wake is check for new messages. AOL study cited in “Email Statistics,” at http://powerprodirect.com.

23
. James Bridle, “The New Aesthetic: Waving at the Machines,” talk delivered at Web Directions South, Sydney, Australia, December 5, 2011, http://booktwo.org/notebook/waving-at-machines.

24
. Vanessa Grigoriadis, “Everybody Sucks: Gawker and the Rage of the Creative Underclass,”
New York
,
October 14, 2007.

25
. For Dardik’s story and techniques, see Roger Lewin,
Making Waves: Irving Dardik and His Superwave Principle
(Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2005).

26
. Most of this work is unpublished, but for more on his approach, see David Alan Goodman, “Declare Your Independence,”
Scientist
17 (12),
June 16, 2003, p. 13.

27
. Joel C. Robertson,
Natural Prozac: Learning to Release Your Body’s Own Anti-Depressants
(New York: HarperOne, 1998).

28
. All quotes from Mark Filippi are from interviews I conducted with him in February and March 2012.

29
. “Tensegrity” is a term used most famously by Buckminster Fuller to describe the structural integrity of various systems. See R. Buckminster Fuller, “Tensegrity,” 1961, at www.rwgrayprojects.com/rbfnotes/fpapers/tensegrity/tenseg01.html.

30
. See http://Lifewaves.com or http://somaspace.org.

31
. Steven Johnson,
Where Good Ideas Come From
(New York: Riverhead, 2010).

32
. Kutcher Tweeted in defense of a fired college football coach, only learning later that the coach had covered up a child molestation. Kutcher then turned his Twitter account over to a professional PR firm.

33
. For more on drones and drone pilots, see my PBS documentary
on
Frontline
,
Digital Nation
, in particular the section on “War by Remote,” www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/blog/2009/10/new-video-fighting-from-afar.html. Also see Phil Stewart, “Overstretched Drone Pilots Face Stress Risk.” Reuters, December 18, 2011.

34
. See Nicholas Carr,
The Shallows
; Sherry Turkle,
Alone Together
; and Maggie Jackson,
Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age
(New York: Prometheus, 2009).

35
. Henry Greely, “Towards Responsible Use of Cognitive-enhancing Drugs by the Healthy,”
Nature
, December 7, 2008.

36
. James G. March,
A Primer on Decision Making
(New York: Free Press, 1994), 245.

37
. James Borg,
Body Language: 7 Easy Lessons to Master the Silent Language
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press, 2010).

38
. Robert McKee and Dr. David Ross, “From Lean Manufacturing to Lean Supply Chain: A Foundation for Change,” a whitepaper for Lawson, available at http://swe.lawson.com/www/resource.nsf/pub/Lawson_Whitepaper_2_A4_LowRes.pdf/$FILE/Lawson_Whitepaper_2_A4_LowRes.pdf.

CHAPTER 3: OVERWINDING: THE SHORT FOREVER

1
. David Hess, “The NBA Lockout Has Increased Injury Rates,”
Notes from the Sports Nerds
blog, February 7, 2012, www.teamrankings.com/blog/nba/the-nba-lockout-has-increased-injury-rates.

2
. Freeman Dyson,
From Eros to Gaia
(New York: Pantheon, 1992), 341.

3
. Stewart Brand,
The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility
(New York: Basic Books, 1999), 49.

4
. Alfred Korzybski,
Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics
(Lakeville, CT: International Non-Aristotelian Library Pub.; distributed by the Institute of General Semantics, 1958), 376.

5
. Ibid.

6
. Productivity guru Merlin Mann is the originator of the term “inbox zero,” but the idea was first posed by Mark Hurst in his 2007 book
Bit Literacy
. I have used both their systems with success but have found myself differing with them on the question of email—most likely because email and the ways we receive it have changed over the past decade.

7
. Mark Hurst,
Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload
(New York: Good Experience, 2007).

8
. For more on this, see my book
Life Inc.
(New York: Random House, 2009)
.

9
. See Bernard Lietaer, “Complementary Currencies in Japan Today,”
International Journal of Community Currency Research
8 (2004).