The Book Review aggregates a collection of contemporary thinkers who have spent more than just a a few minutes focused on a particular subject or narrative. To write a book means an author has typically labored to research, excavate, and shape what they want to say. It is a condensation of intense focus, and often a much deeper dive into a sliver of culture than any short-form anything. 

Imagine a creative process that essentially feeds on little more than what’s cool right now, a millimeter deep understanding of our collective roots and our personal roots. A culture that doesn’t understand its own references, that trades primarily in disposable memes, is a culture doomed to being controlled by whatever political forces ultimately own the platforms of distribution. 

The number one thing we collectively did with our Promethean information powers was unhinge our jaws and try to swallow as much newly emerging social media as possible—voraciously, absent-mindedly, relentlessly. We became boa constrictors incapacitated by trying to swallow not simply a goat, but an elephant. 

What does it matter if I skip a single, socially lubricating word when I’m talking to a massive, barely competent LLM housed in the cloud? I might be saying words, but nobody’s ears are really listening to what I’m saying. If we’re being honest about this, who cares?, especially considering that I’m only speaking to a digital assistant. Read on, because I believe it means a lot, and I’ll explain why.

Ideas are no longer bound by time and space and opportunity. In fact, since you’re likely reading this on a hand-held device, you’re intimately aware of just how many ideas are pulling at your attention right now. Too many, most likely. We must make choices.