Keeping It Real

Human beings are flawed, finite creatures. But they are not problems to be solved, argues AEI senior fellow Christine Rosen, author of The Extinction of Experience. In the technological age, we too often see basic human activities, from reading and writing, to shopping and conversing, as obstacles to efficiency that must be overcome, simplified, or replaced. And while digital technology has provided many benefits, it has also come with unintended consequences for our habits of mind and social interactions. Rosen argues that we need a "new humanism" that puts the human person front-and-center and encourages people to regularly "touch grass."  Related Links: The Extinction of Experience (Christine Rosen) The Outrage Industry ( Jeffrey M. Berry and Sarah Sobieraj Irony and Outrage (Dannagal Goldthwaite Young) "A Long View on Artificial Intelligence" (A Law & Liberty forum on artificial intellegence led by Rachel Lomasky) "What the Smartphone Hath Wrought," (A Law & Liberty review by Joseph Holmes of Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation) Christine Rosen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a columnist for Commentary magazine, senior editor at the New Atlantis and fellow at the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. She lives in Washington, DC.