We Still Live in the Physical World

The digital world has not effaced our humanity, no matter what social critics like Christine Rosen say.

- VIRGINIA POSTREL

HUMAN BEINGS ARE not brains in vats. We are not computer code.

We are sensory, social creatures whose minds are inextricable from our bodies. Christine Rosen's The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World proceeds from this truth to a sweeping condemnation of digital technologies.

We have sacrificed essential human qualities, Rosen believes, for the seductive convenience of clicks, swipes, and ever-present smartphones. As a result, she argues, "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." Her book aims to shake readers into recognizing the technological danger to our humanity. "Social critics of technology are often accused of inciting a misguided moral panic," she writes. "When it comes to our understanding of experience, however, we could use a great deal more moral panicif moral is understood as reminding us of our obligations to one another." Unfortunately, the book fails to meet an author's obligations to the audience. It is riddled with contradictions, cherrypicked examples, and question begging. It is bereft of historical context. And contrary to the promise of the subtitle, it never reveals how Rosen imagines "being human." That ideal seems to involve writing handwritten letters to distant loved ones-but not texts! never texts!-and embracing the boredom of long lines at Disney World.