The future doesn’t have to be scary after all: chill out, we’ll all be fine. A special edition of contributions from my readers
( © The New Yorker , 2019) ‘For all of your life, whenever you’ve had a question you have been able to type that question out on a keyboard, watch it appear in a rectangular space bordered by a corporate logo, and within seconds revel in the flood of potential answers. But I still remember when typewriters were useful, the dawn of the Commodore 64, and days when a song you loved would have its moment on the radio and then disappear into the nothing. For a young man like me, the invention of the Internet was the invention of space travel.’ ( Between the World and Me , Ta-Nehisi Coates) Early in May I wrote yet another one of my doom-laden, fear of the future, technophobia screeds, and asked for reader submissions. Well, here they are. A big thanks to those of my devoted followers who kindly took the time to indulge me and share their thoughts. I am delighted that here I am able to present a mix of views from all over the age spectrum. When I realised that I don’t have any re...