Unit 3: Mediated Experience
Project: ScreenSelfPortrait
Exercise 3: due Sat 14-Nov
- optional reading: “Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad Blueprint for a Post-Literate Future” Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic.com (2010)
→ (also) optional blog entry for bonus participation credit
Week 12
M 11/09 Discuss: Super Sad True Love Story through chapter 17
- focus: digital identity and mediated experience (continued topics)
- looking ahead: Exercise 3 (due 11/14)
» The CU-Boulder 21st Diversity and Inclusion Summit (November 10–11)
Detailed Schedule
→ optional: attend session & compose blog entry for bonus participation credit
W 11/11 hybrid work :
- Discuss: Super Sad True Love Story chapters 18–22
Comment (due 230pm) & Reply (due 3pm) required.
→ include screencapture image of quote/passage (in comment or reply) - Discussion prompts below.
F 11/13 Discuss: completed novel & Exercise 3
- focus: media ecology, narrative, interface, identity
» due: Exercise 3 — Instructions below
Exercise 3: Digital Identity in Super Sad True Love Story
- due Sat 14-Nov
10 points; 400–500 words (minimum; 700 max)
plus media: include 1 instance (image, GIF, video, music) minimum; see below
» Instructions:
Discuss digital identity and mediated experience in the novel Super Sad True Love Story: concerning technology (devices, interfaces, databases); networks (social, technological, institutional); media ecology (types of media) and culture (contemporary or past, real or fictional); social conventions, especially with network platforms, groups/affiliations, communication, and self-understanding (self-construction?).
» Considering any of the above topics, describe 3 categories / types of identity experience throughout the novel. Avoid summary and plot description, in favor of grouping into patterns (categories, topics) that you recognize.
Your discussion should be sure to include specific examples (details/references), with at least one direct passage/quote (screenshot or quote); be sure to include at least one example from first half (chp 1–14) and one from second half (chp 15–27).
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**These 3 discussions should be brief, with category + example, omitting summary and description!
» From your discussion, end with a brief conclusion (2 sentences): how the novel, and the recognition of the 3 categories/patterns, inspires/influences your thinking now about digital identity and mediated experience.
» Finally, be sure to include one instance of digital media (found or created). As a warm-up to Project 3, use a media form to express or illustrate one of the three categories you discuss. The form can be any of your choosing (photo, image, edited, collage, GIF, video, music). The key strategy is using the media form to convey what you discuss/describe, one of the 3 categories/patterns of digital identity in the novel.
» Criteria (from syllabus):
these informal compositions illustrate attentive reading of assigned texts, progress toward project, and engagement with class topics relative to schedule.
Credit is assigned for (1) submitting on-time & including all required elements (text and media); (2) demonstrating attention to class topics, content knowledge, and critical thinking, particularly by describing insights and connections; (3) providing thoughtful and relevant responses to prompts, through specialized discourse;
(4) with specific examples from personal knowledge and/or respective readings, (5) while extending rhetorical knowledge and mastery of writing conventions, practicing efficient prose (i.e. minimizing /avoiding summary, repetition, digression, and any unnecessary discussion).
» Guide / Notes
Conclusion:
This could be about implications or effects, considering current nonfictional trends; you need not discuss yourself, but perhaps reflect on the changing nature of identity—with shifts/evolutions in technology, institutions, networks, media, pop culture, communication/rhetoric.
Avoid judgment/criticism of both Super Sad’s storyworld and of our contemporary media ecology (especially broad predictions or general critiques of media society); instead, pose insights—new ideas, alternative perspectives, thoughtful contemplations—about identity and experience, to consider and explore further in your “Screen Self Portrait” (project 3), especially aspects and directions we might not recognize obviously or consider often.
(it might be helpful to think back to Exercise/Project 1: “how identity is performed/experienced uniquely across certain interfaces and social conventions (as in using cultural forms and multimedia to communicate through the network platform)”—key question about networked media ecology)
Digital Media
No need to explain your media use! Include it as an alternative way of communicating your ideas: it need not be an example obviously; use your intuition / associative logic (this is a key warm-up task for project 3, which we’ll test/explore further in blog entry).
Use anything that comes to mind that conveys the digital identity / mediated experience category in the novel; this might mean illustrating something Shteyngart describes (e.g. with an annotated image or collage) or expressing something the characters/narrators go through (e.g. found GIF or pop-culture video) in terms of digital identity or techno-media experience.
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**This can be any “found media”: a GIF (gesture? facial expression?) that conveys the feeling of RateMe or Credit numbers; a video clip (TV/movie/music video) that expresses indirectly how the fictional characters (Lenny, Eunice, everyone) “interface” and understand each other through particular categories/references; an image collage that shows the storyworld identity experience of being networked (technology + social + institutions + databases).
Use your intuition, associative logic, creative thinking to select media/culture that conveys aesthetically what you’ve described in thoughtful text—without needing to explain! (key strategy, warm-up for project 3)
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— composition notes: embed media directly into blog post.
If you create an image (edited, effects, collage), extra credit will be applied. A good site/program to use for “Photoshop-like” editing is Pixlr https://pixlr.com/
Composing a video is not recommended for this short exercise; however, if you interested to do this additional after Exercise 3 for extra credit, for instance as a screencast, contact GH about this.
W 11/11 hybrid work :
→ screencapture image of specific passage from these chapters can be included in comment or reply
required participation
1. Comment (due 230pm):
from your observations of any key topics/issues we’ve discussed (see Exercise 3 prompt above),
briefly note one category or patterns of identity experience in the novel (1−2 sentences).
Include specific references and/or passage from these chapters (18−22) — noting how the pattern is becoming more apparent/prominent to you (to potentially discuss as one of 3 categories in exercise response).
2. Classmate Reply (due 3pm)
— suggested approaches/options (among other ideas for replies):
a. offer an additional example, from this section (chapters 18–22), for same pattern/category observed
— for instance, concerning other characters or plot points
b. extend discussion by distinguishing from (compare/contrast?) the topic you remarked upon in your comment
— especially if you both used similar examples (characters, details, plot instances)
c. propose suggestions for Exercise, particularly with additional topics/issues that might be included for a more compound category
→ this would be especially good approach for optional 2nd reply (bonus discussion credit)
*remember, comments and replies can be brief (a few sentences) and informal/conversational!
» from Exercise 3 prompt — key topics to consider and connect, for discussing 3 categories of identity experience in the novel:
Discuss digital identity and mediated experience in the novel Super Sad True Love Story: concerning
technology (devices, interfaces, databases); networks (social, technological, institutional); media ecology (types of media) and culture (contemporary or past, real or fictional);
social conventions, especially with network platforms, groups/affiliations, communication, and self-understanding (self-construction?).
→ use any of these issues/aspects in discussion, along with terms from Monday class like “quantified self” (“data identity”?) and identity / experience at individual and collective levels…
“In the first few pages, Kundera discusses several abstract historical figures: Robespierre, Nietzsche, Hitler. For Eunice’s sake, I wanted him to get to the plot, to introduce actual “living” characters — I recalled this was a love story — and to leave the world of ideas behind. Here we were, two people lying in bed, Eunice’s worried head propped on my collarbone, and I wanted us to feel something in common. I wanted this complex language, this surge of intellect, to be processed into love.”
In this excerpt Lenny is attempting to introduce Eunice to the antiquating practice of consuming literature from and about the past. As they practice the natural and very interpersonal action of cuddling in bed Lenny still feels distant from her because of the cultural effects of future media that seem to act as a wedge between them. Literature certainly has its undisputed romantic qualities in todays culture, but in the future Lenny considers it as a complex or perhaps heavily intellectual language to the HNWIs.
For my comment, I’m focusing on the construction of individuality and the separation/disconnection of the individual from the collective because of the culture behind technology and its mediated experience. In the aftermath of the US’s collapsing economy, Joshie and Lenny meet at work to talk.
“…This is eternity. This is the heart of creative economy.” — Joshie
“Fuck the creative economy,” I said, without thinking. “There’s no food downtown.” — Lenny
Joshie throughout the book has been consumed with the idea of youth, contemporary/modernistic cultures, and finding ways to live a youthful life (mostly through his experience with technology and dechronification). His life is consumed by this idea, it’s all he sets out to pursue and achieve. Being youthful brings him to be selfish with it, and only offer it to those within this culture that deserve (aka can afford it). Similarly to our current culture, money defines one’s scope in life, and in this instance this idea is coming out specifically in regards to technology and one’s access to it. He calls his dechronification the “creative economy,” better than any apparat app offered on the market. It shows how separated from the collective he has become, consumed with money and technology and all the ideologies that come with it in this culture. He represents the emergent culture while Lenny embodies the old ways, trying to fit in with the new, but his morals from the old are too strong to be forgotten.
I like that you picked up on this too, this idea about the “creative economy.” As I talked about in my comment, I truly think this is a story urging our generation to not be consumed with, like you said, money and technology. Lenny represents the “good guy” who values an old-fashioned way of life and recognizes the downfalls of technology and selfishness. He stands up for individuality and rejects a lot of the moral values of other HNWIs and the creative economy. Shteyngart constructs Lenny’s identity to portray a good guy — one who still appreciates basic values and doesn’t conform but still remains successful and altruistic even in a society that’s gone off the deep end.
But you can argue that Lenny is also consumed by youth culture. He’s initially drawn to Eunice Park because she has the youth over which he obsesses.
“Yesterday I met Eunice Park, and she will sustain me through forever. Take a long look at me, diary. What do you see? A slight man with a gray, sunken battleship of a face. Curious wet eyes. A giant gleaming forehead… And from the back, a growing bald spot whose shape perfectly replicates the great state of Ohio.”
The America Shteyngart speaks to is a youth obsessed, materialistic, and immature society that takes the notion of minting a healthy and active lifestyle to an extreme. Ironically, the highly networked society that is supposed to benefit them and make communication and socialization easier, is only forcing society into a regressive state of communication that leaves us more isolated than ever before.
Throughout the course of reading this novel, I can’t help but to view it as a cautionary tale written by an author who, unlike many, sees where humans’ inherent obsession with money and technology and self-importance is leading us. The characterizations of LNWIs and HNWIs represents a struggle between socioeconomic classes that is even present today (i.e., big businesses and the top one percent versus the other ninety nine percent). The struggle has proven to be too much and now the citizens are breaking into a large scale revolt. Even as this revolt is taking place, the HNWIs hardly seem moved or rattled at all that this revolution is taking place; this is evidenced by Joshie Goldmann’s message to the Post-Human Services Shareholders and Executive Personnel in chapter 19. He states “If regular apparat transmissions cease for any reason, please look for Wapachung Contingency emergency scrolls and follow the directions given. An exciting time is about to begin for us and the creative economy. We are all fortunate, and, in an abstract way, blessed. Onward!” I think this a good quote that displays the selfishness and lack of empathy for anyone else in their dystopian world. Amidst the chaos and revolt, they are “excited” and “blessed” for their position and show little care for anything going on around them. I think this could be foreshadowing in our own world to what it might be like to live in a world dominated by technology and anti-social, self-important people — a world in which people are only concerned with themselves and their own well-being.
This totally relates to the discussion scene in Chapter 20 where Lenny and Joshie are talking about the creative economy. Joshie embodies the consequences the technology when you allow it consume yourself and your experience. I can even see how far this has been taken with Joshie’s resistance to let his own best friend Lenny not receive the treatments because he did not have the monetary fund for treatments. Throughout the book money seems to be the only thing standing in the way of Lenny achieving a longer life. He is constantly referencing his amount of yuan and how the 239,000 from Rome was the amount he needed to start treatment. Not only does technology define who you are, who you are defined to be defines your ability to access technology and therefore all the mediated experiences, such as long life and youth, that one can have access too. Joshie seems himself as lucky and “blessed” but he is only blessed because he has the means to receive a blessing. This could be talked about in terms of cultural representations and you can totally expand on this aspect of the book as a metaphor to our contemporary culture and who has access to its fullest capabilities.
“My apparat isn’t connecting. I can’t connect. It’s been almost a month since my last diary entry. I am so sorry. But I can’t connect in any meaningful way to anyone, even to you, diary.” –Lenny in chapter 22
The dependence on the apparat is showing its true colors. People are committing suicide because they cannot live without it. Lenny cannot seem to connect with anyone. The social structure of the world is breaking down. Being free from being ranked is actually causing stress. People need to know what others think of them, for others to determine their place in the world. Life now does not seem as exciting. The lives of everyone in the novel were so intertwined with the apparat and now it is so interesting to see how they are dealing without them.
I found this “blow up” funny and also shocking because of the dependence of technology. Part of the security instructions say, “KEEP ÄPPÄRÄT FULLY CHARGED IF POSSIBLE. AWAIT INSTRUCTIONS.” This just shows how prominent these devices are. They expect everyone to have one as a main way to communicate even in a disaster situation.
I feel this concept is summed up well with a quote from later in the chapter, “Because we can’t connect to our apparati, we’re learning to turn to each other”. In any way you look at it, having to learn ‘traditional’ interpersonal communications is comical. Even more so that this is solely because they lack the ability to use their devices.
This is something that I was discussing too, along with the importance of Media in society. It seems as though people in the media have become more important than any other profession. In ch.19 you notice that they keep receiving frightening announcements from the media about the US deficit and terrorist threats. This is something that is already prominent in our media and is exaggerated in the novel.
I think this is really interesting because I feel like our society is kind of on the path toward this. People are addicted to their phones and there is now such thing as phantom vibration syndrome. We have become completely immersed in this technological world and often forget about the real world we are actually living in.
http://goo.gl/knm4hc (had to put screenshot in URL since it wouldn’t show up in here.
One aspect/pattern I’ve observed in this novel is the existence of a materialistic populous that relies on their technology to reassure themselves of their relevance. They rely on their apparati to the point where it becomes part of their identity, and placed many in a state of crisis once they were without. In the “Five-Jiao Men” chapter, this is made incredibly clear in the very first paragraphs of the entry where Lenny writes of the recent suicides committed by two teenagers who saw “no future without their apparati”, feeling life wasn’t worth living without the constant electronic stimulation. The lack of connection left Lenny “itching” for it, and him being more distanced from his apparati comparatively to other characters, it can easily be said that many more were much worse off after The Rupture.
Their obsession with their apparati is definitely something that is extremely troubling. There is a whole chapter where Eunice just sends messages to her friends and family even though she keeps getting an error message, “I bet I’m going to get an error message after I write this, but I feel like I have to write this anyway”. She is so enslaved by her apparati that she does not know who to talk to or what to do without it she kind of just stares at it. This made me think of the present when the power goes out and we are kind of forced to create other types of diversions for ourselves. All the while just waiting for the power to come back.
Shteyngart is definitely pointing at a real social problem in today’s society. A lot of people, teens especially, become obsessed with their cell phones and social media identities and they invest so much of their lives into it that a lot of them aren’t sure what to do or how to live without them. It’s a very troubling reality which undoubtedly takes place in today’s society and a dystopia.
I am focusing on the topic concerning technology. I have noticed a couple new examples in these few chapters that enhance the importance and expectations of technology in their world they live in.
“I can communicate with him easier than I can with Lenny even though he doesn’t wear an äppärät for some reason and I can’t get his profile.”
This quote stood out to me because it is shocking that she is surprised that she can communicate better “in person” than through a device. Today that is the opposite because tone and emotion is still difficult to communicate over a device. This is becoming easier with emojis and gifs but it isn’t the same as an in person conversation.
“I was a very angry young man until I realized I didn’t have to die.”
This other quote also stood out because technology shouldn’t control our emotions. It may influence our emotions for a limited time by making us laugh or angry over a post but by seeing in this book that it can change a persons entire outlook on life is intense.
My post was about how technology has a hold over people and kind of creates a false world that people want to live in. Both of your quotes demonstrate that completely. It is shocking that Eunice cannot look past a device to really get to know Lenny and it actually turns out that she kinda likes him. With the loss of these communication devices people kind of seem lost and in extreme cases Lenny mentions that people actually committed suicide.
With regard to your first example, the surprise of simply having or developing closer connections through interpersonal interactions outside of media is very much in alignment with the core themes of the book. However, in your discussion of tone and emotional conveyance through media in our contemporary world you could make connections about how there is a comfort in engaging a screen rather than the real person. I think that feeling is very prevalent today and is better than stating that tone or emotion is “still difficult to communicate.”
→ suggestion: continue discussing digital identity and mediated experience—particularly given plot developments in/after chapter 19.
as well, considering how we learn information & how the narrators know themselves (through writing in respective forms/interfaces)…
On the topics of digital identity and mediated experience, there is a recurring theme that I noticed throughout the novel, which is the importance of media. It is interesting to point out, as we know the importance of media in our society, how exaggerated media importance is in the novel. “My friends. My dear ones. We chatted in the typically funny-sad way of the people in their late thirties about the things that used to make us young as Amy passed around a real joint, seedless and moist, the kind that only Media people get”. This idea is prominent in this somewhat future tense context, as the author is most definitely pointing out the rising mediated culture in our present society.
I would have to agree. How media is presented in this book is like a necessity, like food and water. It is very important in that it dictates who people are. Everyone has to be connected in order to form real relationships. Media is so ingrained in the lives of the characters that they cannot see how it was negatively affecting their interaction with the real world. There is a longing for media where there should be more social interaction and facing life head on instead of living in a very socially constructed world.
I also noticed the value placed on the media. It is constantly overwhelming the lives of each character and is part of the reason the culture is over-stimulated.
I thought it was very interesting how throughout the book there is mention of the “Fallacy of Merely Existing,” as if these people were making an effort to get more out of life or to actually understand what is happening in other parts of the world. Maybe even striving to be more cultured, a society of intellectuals. However, the technology they are so obsessed with and their over-consumerist, vapid society makes this extremely difficult and almost laughable.
“I was a very angry young man until I realized I didn’t have to die. Some of us are so special, Eunice, we don’t have to succumb to the Fallacy of Merely Existing. Maybe you’re special too, huh? Anyway, I can help you get a job, so you don’t have to worry about that part.”
If they know they can extend their lives they should spend that time exploring the world and becoming more knowledgable, and not flirting with girls that are fifty years younger than them and offering a job in retail for being “special”.
I think your point is very valid and interesting, but would the characters of this story agree. These characters do not seem to care at all about “seeing the world” they are too linked to technology to recognize the beauty of nature. For me I think that is part of Shteyngart’s point. No matter how long one is to be on the earth in the story’s reality, they must spend money while being a HNWI. That is the only reason for them to be there to help further the creative economy.
My quote:
https://i.gyazo.com/fd5688ffe99bdd7a6b383072e6b6f697.png
This part happens at the very beginning of when New York is attacked, and shows just how much digital identity means in this world. People’s lives are valued based on how good their statistics are for finances and looks. It is the immediate reaction and go to description of whether or not people will be okay, not where they are or how much they are determined, but how high their numbers are. Even in a crisis like this these things take priority.
I also wrote about this chapter and I thought it was very interesting how there immediate reaction was not how to live, almost as if there fate was already decided for them so why bother going against it. I would almost compare your observation to current day because I think if the world was under attack, we are saving the most powerful, famous people first, not in the same way as the role of digital identity plays in the book, but under similar circumstances.
Something I observed in the novel is how much technology and media consumes a person and their everyday activities. Although Lenny isn’t considered to be the most technologically “savvy,” technology effects his life just as much as any one else in the novel. A good example from chapter 17 would be the CrisisNet; constantly giving reports in a state of emergency.
“CrisisNet: URGENT: AMERICAN RESTORATION AUTHORITY RAISES THREAT LEVEL TO NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA TO RED++IMMINENT DANGER”
“Shouting and grabbing on to one another, the excitement of what we always suspected would happen tinged with a the reality that we were actually, finally, in the middle of the movie..” –Lenny
Media connected to technology become so apparent in everyday life that even in a state of panic and danger, Lenny compares it to a movie.
“Duh! Anyway, that rhesus monkey painting was so good I don’t want your talent to go to waste, Eunice. You’re super-gifted. This many sound weird, but you kind of remind me of me when I was younger. Except you’re sweeter. I was a very angry young man until I realized I didn’t have to die. Some of us are so special, Eunice, we don’t have to succumb to the Fallacy of Merely Existing. Maybe you’re special too, huh? Anyway, I can help you get a job, so you don’t have to worry about the part. And I’ll take a class with you. It’ll be so great!!! You can make more animal drawings of Lenny and then give them to him for his birthday in the fall.” — Goldmann
It thought this passage was particularly interesting because it specifically exemplified the discussion we had on Monday. The chapter starts out by further exemplifying Goldmann’s obsession with youth when he asks Eunice to refer to him by his first name, despite their relationship as acquaintances. Goldmann is really persistent with Eunice and is pushing the idea of immortality and the ability in todays generation to circumvent death by choosing to not “succumb to the Fallacy of Merely Existing”. This demonstrates the concept of mediated communication because Goldmann’s constant interaction with technology and this generations “always-on” culture.
When I was reading about the apparati not working and people committing suicide over it, it was so ridiculous that I could hardly take it seriously.
“…they couldn’t see a future without their apparati… He needed to be ranked, to know his place in this world… We are all bored out of our fucking minds.”
But after thinking about the rise of technology in modern culture, as extreme an example as it is, is it so far off from the truth? People have become increasingly dependent on technology and online networks to communicate with each other, create an identity for themselves, and find entertainment that they struggle to have an in-person conversation longer than five minutes.
From what I have seen in today’s world this is true. When people forget their phones at home, life seems to become much less manageable, or at least much more problematic to deal with. It seems like a piece of you is missing, and you notice that for the whole day. It is akin to an addiction for many. With those trends, it is very likely that in the future we will see similar situations that those in the story without their apparati are going through. As a society, we have become absolutely dependent on these devices, when only a few years ago we did not need them to handle our daily lives.
I wrote something very similar and mentioned how there are many people that do not understand social interactions or cannot handle them, but have bountiful digital lives. That ability to interact with others for longer periods of time seems to be become scarce as time goes on.
It’s crazy how much technology is a part of the lifestyle. I thought it was ridiculous when they were arresting the man off of the plane for not having an apparat and then it just got ridiculous that people were killing themselves because of it. That’s just how integral technology is to their lives, and it almost mirrors how much it is today. (Though obviously not to the extent of people killing themselves)
People are similarly attached today which is why you see them always on them, and making it the #1 priority to find a charger when it runs out of battery.
I think cell phones were originally created to keep people organized and connected regardless of where they are or what they are doing. Cell phones have so many helpful uses and tools that people do invest much of their lives in them. However, it got out of hand and people became addicted to the “lifestyle” of ease and convenience and I think we’re seeing the ramifications of that now in today’s society where people are being so controlled by their devices. Shteyngart provides a realistic dramatization of what the future holds if we continue down this path, i.e., as you mentioned, people killing themselves over their apparats.
How strongly people identify themselves with their media devices and their online profiles show how technologically dependent we as a society are.
“Four young people committed suicide in our building complexes, and two of them wrote suicide notes about how they couldn’t see a future without their apparati. One wrote, quite eloquently, about how he “reached out to life,” but found there only “walls and thoughts and faces,” which weren’t enough.”
To them, the physical composition of people do not make up any significance. It is merely a shell that houses the true identity or person. The apparati to them is the only thing that matters. It is their identity, and without it they are lost and confused. It makes me think about how today there are many socially awkward people that can only communicate through digital means. Here, it seems like many have completely forgotten how to interact face to face, like it is not even an option.
It interesting that people care so much about there digital identity, especially at a young age in the novel, while Lenny is still writing in a journal. It seems as if they are in two different worlds. I agree, I can actually seeing that being a problem for future generations based on the generations after ours who have not lived with out media.
“That’s what tyrants do, I guess. They make you covet their attention; they make you confuse attention for mercy.” This quote from Super Sad True Love Story is very interesting to me. For me this quote is poking fun at the technology of this reality, not any real tyrant. The people of this reality have become so digitally enthralled that they are brain dead to the outside world and it’s goings on. The main goal of the society is to create the “best” digital identity because that is identity in this world. The characters are not worried about the world being split into two groups instead they are only worried about personal problems, and outward appearances. Everything for these characters is mediated through their aparati. They do not experience the world, instead they let technology do that for them, and then get filled in on the key points.
→ GIPHY TV
“My hair would continue to gray, and then one day, it would fall out entirely, and then, on a day meaninglessly close to the present one, meaninglessly like the present one, I would disappear from the earth. And all these emotions, all these yearnings, all these data, if that helps to clinch the enormity of what I’m talking about, would be gone.”
In terms of identity I think this passage sends a pretty strong message. We as humans are so much more than ratings and numbers. When we die those numbers are just old information and what lives on is the legacy you’ve built up. That’s what makes humanity such a divine phenomenon is that we hold emotion and integrity and personality. Personality is not a thing that an apparat can measure. I think that is one of the main themes of this book, that technology can only define so much and take us so far. There is a certain point where technology can advance us so much before it starts to limit or take a toll on our humanity.