Appreciate the comments, Brett. Note that this was first of two articles and second was just this instant published and is called, Infinite Present — Our Digital Dark Age.

I wrote the first article as a personal reflection. As someone involved in the Net longer than digital natives belief was I have a larger frame of reference. That said, the title suggested this malady is “spreading.”

With all due respect to Walter Ong, the most important tool for oral, pre-literate societies was language that led to sharing scenarios. Without that we would not have progressed as we did.

As for digital natives having tools “to document their history or map out a plan for the future systematically…[and] our reversion to a ubiquitous present is unforced and need not occur at all” has truth to it.

But, there is a difference between random (i.e., relative) plans (i.e., mutations) about the future and understanding a larger evolutionary trajectory and aligning it with. For example, authoritarian personalities (guess who) have a “plan,” but are not aligned with the larger trajectory.

Both of these last two sets of comments are addressed in the new article referenced above, and in greater detail in an earlier article of mine called, Macroscopic Evolutionary Paradigm you might find interesting.

Doc Huston