I'm, mostly, in ironic agreement with you. I am just about to put my phone down and return to tending my vegetable garden but before I do an observation or two. As a species we have removed ourself from selective pressure (evolution) and bereft of evolution we are doomed, eventually, to die out, it won't take a billion years! My other observation is that we use our phones to connect to friends, loved ones, colleagues because we live dispersed lives and we like to talk (as well as engage in poetry, philosophy, science and religion with fellow enthusiasts here on Substack - nourishing I think). So it isn't all zombification, love is seeping in.
If we can transfer the values of our analog technologies—bow and basket—to our modern, then we will have built a beautiful world. It is completely up to us to make sure the love seeps in. It is a good fight. I appreciate the comment, Steve
This is the truth. I sold my last motorcycle partly for this reason. I had enough cars swerve into my lane with the driver texting, only for the driver to look over at me as if it was my fault. Stay safe out there, Dee.
I don’t see it as a new conflict. It’s as old as time? In radio, I was a music director. The trades would call to ask what records I was adding to our playlist—because those adds influenced national airplay.
One record rep, trying to push his single, said to me: “Just paper add it.” That meant reporting it—even if I had no intention of playing it.
I was stunned. That was my first glimpse of how the system could be gamed. And it felt wrong. Not because the charts were sacred—but because it pointed to a deeper sickness: a structure that rewards manipulation. That punishes truth.
That makes you feel like if you want to be heard, you have to lie. You have to fake it. In other words, you have to feed your self to it.
And that record rep? He wasn’t the villain. He was just doing his job—trying to sell the product.
But behind that single was likely an artist. Someone who maybe believed in the song.
And to watch that work reduced to leverage in a numbers game—just to move units? That’s what felt unbearable.
Art and that system—at their core—seem incompatible.
Along with your other comments, you are on to something fundamental here. I appreciate that you learned it the hard way, boots on the ground. Thank you for sharing.
I find your focus on the opportunities we will lose as a result of our species-zombification to be so compelling. I sometimes muse that it would be hard to invent a more efficient way of dumbing down humanity and dulling our hard-earned ability to adapt and overcome than the screen suck. Epictetus has my attention these days, thanks to you. I am swimming, sometimes drowning in his thoughts. "I chase his thoughts like birds." I love your comment below on the three strands. There is something so liberating in taking "absolute, total, relentless pleasure in everything that can happen. All the good. All the bad. All the evil. Every possible outcome accepted with the most brutal bright-eyed acceptance." In this sense, every day is a wild and beautiful day. Every obstacle an opportunity to think and be creative. Every reverse is a chance to be fully our best self. My gratitude to you, Sam.
You are more than welcome, Anthony. This is all there is, and I'm stoked to hear you are digging into Epictetus. I can have a day that feels truly wretched, but I keep his discourses near where I do most of my work/thinking. If I stop, open to any page, and simply read, my world is turned right side up again. I appreciate the feedback and comment.
Great essay. It is sad to think about how much human creativity, reflection, and deep thought gets substituted for mindless zombie scrolling and watching. The way you articulated the scale of it is particularly haunting. I'm optimistic about technology broadly speaking...while it is the proverbial double edged sword, I view advances in tech as net positives for humanity more often than not. But it is so important for realizations like this to be made so that we can use it wisely, and question the ways in which it can be harmful.
The is spot on, Jeff. The only way to go back is for some truly apocalyptic scenario to happen. Nor would it make sense to pass up the many positives of tech. The path forward is to find that nuanced approach you're riffing on here. I'm all for it.
People who are constantly hungry have an easily defined goal: Food.
When people are incessantly provided for, what goal do they have, do they need?
In my lifetime I've seen a massive degeneration from a desire for self-sufficiency to a desire to be cared for. If that guy wrecks, it's not his fault, it's the phone company's fault. It's the automaker's fault. And anyway, the insurance company will pay, so no need to worry.
That is an entirely different economy to riff on. There is much that needs to be rethought because as you note, rarely is the individual responsible for that individuals life, even in the most absurd cases. Maybe the pendulum will start to swing back, but I don't think so. I imagine it will get quite a bit worse before sanity is a virtue.
Great piece Sam. The civilizational impact is a powerful, if sobering, frame to consider what is lost in the inattention economy. It'd be one thing if we saw some massive, civilizational gains happening, and I can hear techno-optimists talking about AI, space, advances in genetics, etc., but I think all, or almost all, of the gains from technology could be had without the selling of our minds to phones and social media. As you point out, we might even be making more strides on tech that transforms people's lives the way trains and airplanes did if we rejected the idea that we all need to be transformed into users.
100%. The entire framing of "progress" needs to be rethought or our world will be something unrecognizable not too long from now. So many incredible paths will be shut off, so much time wasted unless more and more people start to question these platforms.
It seems to me that what we are seeing is the next level addiction that humans have to mass communication. Just going back a “few” years to inventions like the Guttenberg press (analog), it progressed to newspapers, radio, TV, internet (digital multimedia) implanted chips for thought communication. All the media was quickly taken advantage to advertise and our addiction to mass consumption. Maybe it is in our DNA to “gossip” and “consume”.
I think you're onto the evolutionary root. I believe this is true. These technologies amplify our ancient desire for connection, communication, to be heard, to know. It is ironic that the tools we create and consume are causing problems simply by giving us more what we always needed. Getting back on track will be a good fight.
Getting back on track could work only by agreement by members of a small community. I experienced that volunteering in a kibbutz. I saw many of them being very different from each other and it worked mainly first for the first generation but started to change with the second one.
Sam: I struggle with this dance between modern and ancient worlds as well, and most days I feel like changing my name to Ty, because I feel extinct and obsolete and calling me Tyrannosaurus Rex is just too long a name…
I am inclined to roll that direction as well. That call will probably always be with us. We have a good fight here until we convert our digital tech into analog fulfillment.
Sam. The penalty for touching your phone whilst driving here in Victoria Australia is $593 on the spot fine. Also loss of 4 demerit points. (if you lose 11 points in any 3 year period you lose your licence. Traffic cameras here can detect phone use.(and also detect if your seat belt is not fastened properly)
That is an excellent penalty. I don't think I have ever seen or heard of anyone here getting pulled over for being on their phones while driving. Which is astonishing since it is impossible to drive without seeing it. That is a good start. I appreciate the comment, Stefatanus.
I'm, mostly, in ironic agreement with you. I am just about to put my phone down and return to tending my vegetable garden but before I do an observation or two. As a species we have removed ourself from selective pressure (evolution) and bereft of evolution we are doomed, eventually, to die out, it won't take a billion years! My other observation is that we use our phones to connect to friends, loved ones, colleagues because we live dispersed lives and we like to talk (as well as engage in poetry, philosophy, science and religion with fellow enthusiasts here on Substack - nourishing I think). So it isn't all zombification, love is seeping in.
If we can transfer the values of our analog technologies—bow and basket—to our modern, then we will have built a beautiful world. It is completely up to us to make sure the love seeps in. It is a good fight. I appreciate the comment, Steve
Your distracted suicidal highway swerver is a brilliant metaphor for who/what "we" are becoming! 👏
I appreciate it, Baird. It is wild, as well as a good warning.
You really get an up close and arresting visual of how often people drive that way when you’re on a motorcycle. 🙄
This is the truth. I sold my last motorcycle partly for this reason. I had enough cars swerve into my lane with the driver texting, only for the driver to look over at me as if it was my fault. Stay safe out there, Dee.
🙏💯
I don’t see it as a new conflict. It’s as old as time? In radio, I was a music director. The trades would call to ask what records I was adding to our playlist—because those adds influenced national airplay.
One record rep, trying to push his single, said to me: “Just paper add it.” That meant reporting it—even if I had no intention of playing it.
I was stunned. That was my first glimpse of how the system could be gamed. And it felt wrong. Not because the charts were sacred—but because it pointed to a deeper sickness: a structure that rewards manipulation. That punishes truth.
That makes you feel like if you want to be heard, you have to lie. You have to fake it. In other words, you have to feed your self to it.
And that record rep? He wasn’t the villain. He was just doing his job—trying to sell the product.
But behind that single was likely an artist. Someone who maybe believed in the song.
And to watch that work reduced to leverage in a numbers game—just to move units? That’s what felt unbearable.
Art and that system—at their core—seem incompatible.
Along with your other comments, you are on to something fundamental here. I appreciate that you learned it the hard way, boots on the ground. Thank you for sharing.
This is so fucking important. Thank you for writing and sharing
You are more than welcome. I'm stoked you enjoyed it.
This was sobering enough I put my phone down while my self-driving rental car navigated the congested freeways around DC while on travel.
Probably the same thing I felt when I watched that guy swerving. I appreciate the comment, Michael.
I find your focus on the opportunities we will lose as a result of our species-zombification to be so compelling. I sometimes muse that it would be hard to invent a more efficient way of dumbing down humanity and dulling our hard-earned ability to adapt and overcome than the screen suck. Epictetus has my attention these days, thanks to you. I am swimming, sometimes drowning in his thoughts. "I chase his thoughts like birds." I love your comment below on the three strands. There is something so liberating in taking "absolute, total, relentless pleasure in everything that can happen. All the good. All the bad. All the evil. Every possible outcome accepted with the most brutal bright-eyed acceptance." In this sense, every day is a wild and beautiful day. Every obstacle an opportunity to think and be creative. Every reverse is a chance to be fully our best self. My gratitude to you, Sam.
You are more than welcome, Anthony. This is all there is, and I'm stoked to hear you are digging into Epictetus. I can have a day that feels truly wretched, but I keep his discourses near where I do most of my work/thinking. If I stop, open to any page, and simply read, my world is turned right side up again. I appreciate the feedback and comment.
Great essay. It is sad to think about how much human creativity, reflection, and deep thought gets substituted for mindless zombie scrolling and watching. The way you articulated the scale of it is particularly haunting. I'm optimistic about technology broadly speaking...while it is the proverbial double edged sword, I view advances in tech as net positives for humanity more often than not. But it is so important for realizations like this to be made so that we can use it wisely, and question the ways in which it can be harmful.
The is spot on, Jeff. The only way to go back is for some truly apocalyptic scenario to happen. Nor would it make sense to pass up the many positives of tech. The path forward is to find that nuanced approach you're riffing on here. I'm all for it.
People who are constantly hungry have an easily defined goal: Food.
When people are incessantly provided for, what goal do they have, do they need?
In my lifetime I've seen a massive degeneration from a desire for self-sufficiency to a desire to be cared for. If that guy wrecks, it's not his fault, it's the phone company's fault. It's the automaker's fault. And anyway, the insurance company will pay, so no need to worry.
That is an entirely different economy to riff on. There is much that needs to be rethought because as you note, rarely is the individual responsible for that individuals life, even in the most absurd cases. Maybe the pendulum will start to swing back, but I don't think so. I imagine it will get quite a bit worse before sanity is a virtue.
I think I see it swinging back, but I'm not betting on it.
Great piece Sam. The civilizational impact is a powerful, if sobering, frame to consider what is lost in the inattention economy. It'd be one thing if we saw some massive, civilizational gains happening, and I can hear techno-optimists talking about AI, space, advances in genetics, etc., but I think all, or almost all, of the gains from technology could be had without the selling of our minds to phones and social media. As you point out, we might even be making more strides on tech that transforms people's lives the way trains and airplanes did if we rejected the idea that we all need to be transformed into users.
100%. The entire framing of "progress" needs to be rethought or our world will be something unrecognizable not too long from now. So many incredible paths will be shut off, so much time wasted unless more and more people start to question these platforms.
It seems to me that what we are seeing is the next level addiction that humans have to mass communication. Just going back a “few” years to inventions like the Guttenberg press (analog), it progressed to newspapers, radio, TV, internet (digital multimedia) implanted chips for thought communication. All the media was quickly taken advantage to advertise and our addiction to mass consumption. Maybe it is in our DNA to “gossip” and “consume”.
I think you're onto the evolutionary root. I believe this is true. These technologies amplify our ancient desire for connection, communication, to be heard, to know. It is ironic that the tools we create and consume are causing problems simply by giving us more what we always needed. Getting back on track will be a good fight.
Getting back on track could work only by agreement by members of a small community. I experienced that volunteering in a kibbutz. I saw many of them being very different from each other and it worked mainly first for the first generation but started to change with the second one.
I was saying this to my wife the other day about the phone epidemic, especially in any vehicle. Calling them Zombies. Another sterling piece man!
Observation and awareness, almost seem like a unique skillset in today's age.
It is an art form. And those of us who like writing and contemplating, endless fodder for thoughts. I appreciate it, Enda.
Sam: I struggle with this dance between modern and ancient worlds as well, and most days I feel like changing my name to Ty, because I feel extinct and obsolete and calling me Tyrannosaurus Rex is just too long a name…
I am inclined to roll that direction as well. That call will probably always be with us. We have a good fight here until we convert our digital tech into analog fulfillment.
Sam. The penalty for touching your phone whilst driving here in Victoria Australia is $593 on the spot fine. Also loss of 4 demerit points. (if you lose 11 points in any 3 year period you lose your licence. Traffic cameras here can detect phone use.(and also detect if your seat belt is not fastened properly)
That is an excellent penalty. I don't think I have ever seen or heard of anyone here getting pulled over for being on their phones while driving. Which is astonishing since it is impossible to drive without seeing it. That is a good start. I appreciate the comment, Stefatanus.
Thanks Sam 👍🏻