People spent the twentieth century obsessed with the future. We created technolo
gies that would help connect us faster, gather news, map the planet, and compile
knowledge. We strove for an instantaneous network where time and space could be
compressed.
Well, the future's arrived. We live in a continuous now enabled
by Twitter, email, and a so-called real-time technological shift. Yet this now"
is an elusive goal that we can never quite reach. And the dissonance between our
digital selves and our analog bodies has thrown us into a new state of anxiety:
present shock.
Douglas Rushko weaves together seemingly disparate events and
trends into a rich, nuanced portrait of how life in the eternal present has aff
ected our biology, behavior, politics, and culture.
