Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 40 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Chris talks to AEI Senior Fellow and Commentary columnist Christine Rosen about her new book, The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World.
How have new technologies shaped our interactions with each other and the physical world? Have they changed our understanding of what it means to be human? Plus, Christine talks about her favorite science fiction.
Links
Keats: “Ode on Indolence”
Drew Gilpin Faust: “Gen Z Never Learned to Read Cursive” (The Atlantic)
Commentary podcast: “Our Favorite Science Fiction”
Ray Bradbury’s fiction (Library of America)
Sunny on Apple TV+
Thanks to our sponsors: X-Caps xtosterone supplements and SeeChange from Circle Tech.Opening and closing music: “Spit It Out” by Brendan Benson, used with permission from the artist.
Subscribe to The Back of the Book in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
Glad to see this podcast showing up. We’ll see where it goes.
I was an early adopter of abandoning cursive in favor of print, starting in the mid nineties, well before I owned a personal computer let alone a laptop I could take to class. As such I bring a particular ax to grind.
First off, I distrust anything preceded by the phrase “studies say”. Like an old preacher asking “Is it not written?” perhaps the studies do say that, but perhaps they do not. In particular, while I might be willing to believe a difference between writing and typing, I don’t think y’all ever came out and said that the studies showed a difference between print and cursive note taking.
On the historical side I’m reminded of touring the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. On display they had sections of notes he had taken on yellow legal pads. And they listed a translation. Which included such words as [unintelligible]. And I looked at the paper it was quoting, and darn if it wasn’t unintelligible to me. Perhaps by abandoning cursive we’re leaving fewer notes for future generations to decrypt. That doesn’t sound like such a bad thing to me.
Oh, and Mrs. Rosen, that experiment you performed? It one hundred percent qualifies as scientific. What it wasn’t was rigorous. I think the scientific community has lost the first principle of science, which is to open your darn eyes and look at what’s happening right in front of you. Rigor comes later. By all means, keep bumping into D.C. types with my blessing.
Finally, I would be interested in your list of great Japanese science fiction. I was just lamenting that, as well read as I am in the genre generally, I haven’t read much foreign stuff.
Great new show on Ricochet! Interesting topics, and limitless potential for future shows. I like the list of related links in the show notes.