The Naked Sun

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There was a recent traffic accident in the frozen Midwest where an SUV skidded off a snow-covered road, crashed into a parked car and caught fire.  The sole occupant never made it out of the car as the flames slowly engulfed the entire vehicle, killing the driver.  It took almost a minute for the flames to reach the passenger compartment—ample time for any of the onlookers to have at least attempted to rescue the injured driver.

No one even approached the vehicle while it burned.  You can watch the entire accident for yourself, since at least two of the onlookers posted the video to social media.

When The Doc, my wife, was in med school, there was a running joke that in the event of a patient suffering a cardiac arrest, the medical students should first take their own pulse.  Today, in case of any emergency, take out your cell phone and start recording.

Somehow, owning a cell phone has turned from being a convenience into a taskmaster that is devouring our humanity.  Traditional human activities—talking with friends, writing letters, and reading a real book have become skills practiced only by the elderly, along with such arcane talents as the ability to write in cursive, use of a rotary telephone, racism, and driving a manual transmission.

Consider the following “facts” gleaned from a quick Google search on my iPhone:

•    The average American spends over half of every day staring at some form of screen.

•    American adults spend more than 11 hours per day watching, reading, listening to or simply interacting with media—an increase of more than 20% from just four years ago.

•    90% of time spent on cell phones is using apps; actually using a cell phone to make a call is the least common use of the phone.

•    The average person uses Facebook 135 minutes a day.  This is more time than the average person spends a day talking with their spouse.

•    The average daily use of a cell phone is now 3 hours, 35 minutes. The time is limited primarily by the charge capacity of the phone’s battery.

•    The average American writes or receives a personal letter only once every seven weeks.

•    One in four Americans didn’t even read part of a book in the last year—though conversely, those same people are the least likely to own a smartphone.

•    For most Americans, the only activity done more often than using electronic media is sleeping.

It would be very convenient to blame Steve Jobs, since, after all, he’s dead and can’t argue with us.  The market capitalization of Apple, the manufacturer of the first smart phone, did plummet an astounding $7 Billion this week alone after slowing sales of its phones in China was announced.  Personally, I wonder if the slump might be more accurately attributed to the public’s growing awareness that a $1,000 iPhone X doesn’t do much more than the much-cheaper and already-paid-for iPhone 5 (a model that still actually fits in a shirt pocket).

But, I can’t even blame either Apple or Steve Jobs—not really.  I can’t even blame that turbo-dweeb, Mark Zuckerburg.  Social media was actually invented by Isaac Asimov way back in 1957, in a science-fiction story titled, The Naked Sun.  (This shouldn’t surprise you, as I have previously explained how Robert Heinlein invented Amazon at roughly the same time.)

Asimov, perhaps the most prolific writer of the 20th century, wrote of a planet where the inhabitants had little or no human interaction.  Each inhabitant lived a solitary life where all social interactions were carried out through holographic screens.  People “viewed” each other, but almost never “saw” each other.  Their online interactions were far more important, more relevant than actual human contact.  And, just like Facebook today, the fact that the online interactions were not real made people act with less courtesy, less politeness, and for lack of a better word—less humanity.

Asimov’s story is a cross between mystery and science fiction:  a murder mystery that takes place in the future and Asimov seems to understand something about cheapening human interaction, for his version of the future, a world where people only really connect through social media, is something of a horror story.  The characters are to be pitied for what they have lost.

So many of Asimov’s books have been turned into recent movies.  If you are wondering why this book hasn’t been turned into a movie, the answer is obvious:  No one would pay to watch what has become ordinary life.

By the way, Asimov’s novel has another invention that you may have heard of:  Early in the novel, Asimov describes the ‘individual in-flight movie’ while flying on an airplane.  (It would be another twenty-eight years before airline passengers got their own private movies).