The Extinction of Experience

Being Human in a Disembodied World

By: Christine Rosen

Narrated by: Suzie Althens

A reflective, original invitation to recover and cultivate the human experiences that have atrophied in our virtual world.

We embraced the mediated life—from Facetune and Venmo to meme culture and the Metaverse—because these technologies offer novelty and convenience. But they also transform our sense of self and warp the boundaries between virtual and real. What are the costs? Who are we in a disembodied world?

In The Extinction of Experience, Christine Rosen investigates the cultural and emotional shifts that accompany our embrace of technology. In warm, philosophical prose, Rosen reveals key human experiences at risk of going extinct, including face-to-face communication, sense of place, authentic emotion, and even boredom. Considering cultural trends, like TikTok challenges and mukbang, and politically unsettling phenomena, like sociometric trackers and online conspiracy culture, Rosen exposes an unprecedented shift in the human condition, one that habituates us to alienation and control. To recover our humanity and come back to the real world, we must reclaim serendipity, community, patience, and risk.

©2024 Christine Rosen (P)2024 Tantor

Timely, thought-provoking, and invitational

Rosen invites us to consider important questions about how we are, or are not, experiencing our lives. I, for one, plan to spend more time trying to be present. At the same time, she provides thought-provoking guidelines about how we might try to wrestle with, perhaps achieve, a balance between the real and the unreal. Worth the read/listen.

Insightful!

The narration sounded very AI. There were a couple of words in the beginning that sounded super robotic. Overall the story very impactful.

disappointed

I heard the author being interviewed and she mentioned a couple of the items the book focused on. interstate subject, but this book is a little more than an endless series of rather obvious anecdotes. this is more like a long journal article than a book.

Embody Your Life

This is a great book. I really related to the message and mostly enjoyed the listen. I like the author.

It's a bit ironic, though, that the narrator sounds so robotic and machine generated. At first I thought it wasn't a real person, but apparently she is and she is attempting to sound like the voice of AI. I hate to criticize but it's distracting.

Christine is great

I listen to Christine most days on the Commentary pod.. she is a sweetheart & a formidable public intellectual. This is an interesting & well-presented argument about our ever-diminishing humanity.. I don't agree with her on everything (for instance CURSIVE!), but she certainly has a point overall.
I didn't love the narrator. She clearly puts such an extreme effort (and succeeds) at speaking clearly & pleasantly, that she ignores the actual content of what she's reading.. words are often emphasized in a manner NOT of how someone would actually speak & convey the message, but rather in a robotic manner of a person simply wanting to get this next clump of words out clearly. But still, 5 stars cuz the book is great & so is CR.

the theme

the verbatim recitation of the book was plodding with repetitive phrases they bogged down the message of the book

Terrible robotic narration

The reader sounded robotic and might well have been. Great content but I stopped listening after the first hour because the narration was so annoying.

Hard to disagree with

The narration isn’t great, but if you can deal with that, there is some great insight about the decline interpersonal experiences and the author shares some great examples. There are points where the book becomes plodding but not too badly and worth a listen.

Irritating narration but good content

It’s a shame that the narrator reads like a local newscaster reading the AP feed, because this is an important topic and the book is chock full of good information. I’m continuing to listen to it in spite of the narrator but wish every time for a different reader.

A painfully necessary book for the modern world.

Incredibly bright and concise argument of a read. Defending humanity and the ways of old. This critique of the modern world and technology has been long overdue. Thank you to the author.