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“The Glittering Screen of the Night Sky”

I want to begin a series of posts on this book (linked below) with one of my favorite quotes so far:

Networks. Think of them as the ever-shifting constellations of relationships we inhabit on earth and in the ‘glittering screen of the night sky.’

-Maggie Jackson, Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, p. 53

The picture of a black computer screen as ‘the night sky’ struck me. Let me rip it out of context and follow a rabbit-trail.

Indeed, for many, a black screen is the closest one will get to looking at a night sky; and the flickering pixels serve as substitutes for the stars. There is a new astronomy for laypeople: the planets are websites, the constellations are networks. What is the sun? You tell me.

Some might say that this is a wonderful development. We don’t even have to go outside.

I do believe I feel a poem coming on this one.

0 comments

  1. BC Cook says:

    I am the sun, of course. All those websites revolve around me. I make them do so, clicking away with my mouse. From my perspective, they only have relevance as they relate to me, and thus I am the center of existence.

    Or so the attitude goes… I suppose that’s a posture as ancient as Satan. The interesting difference is how it looks within this particular setting of technology.

    What were your overall impressions of this book? I read alot of reviews that said the book seemed disorganized and difficult to follow, suffering from the very problem the book seeks to diagnose. I wondered if peoples’ inability to follow the book might have some to do with modern impatience, which has been the source of very well ordered books, easy to comprehend, but saying very little. (Cliff Notes would be the quintessential example of the kind of book I’m getting at.)

    • Heath says:

      I am not even close to finished yet. The first 50 pages or so are great; from there I have been plodding because it has not been smooth reading. I’ll let you know more after I get farther into the book, but I can definitely see some elements that those reviews are talking about. She does randomly drop in stories and anecdotes that can quickly throw off one line of thought and introduce another.

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