Ross Douthat
An Age of Extinction Is Coming. Here’s How to Survive.
The digital age takes embodied things and offers virtual substitutes, moving entire realms of human interaction and engagement from the physical marketplace to the computer screen. Some of these substitutes have meaningful upsides. But in many cases, the virtual substitutes are clearly inferior to what they’re replacing. But this substitution nonetheless succeeds and deepens because of the power of distraction.