Nita Farahany
Macmillan
16 March 2027
272
eBook - PDF
Non-Fiction
ARC via Edelweiss
A sobering look at how digital life is eroding our thinking, our freedom, and what it means to be human―and how to reclaim what we've lost.
Something is disappearing from human our ability to think freely, engage meaningfully with others, and be present in our own lives. Can we adapt to the modern world without losing the qualities that make us human?
In Cognitive Extinction, Nita Farahany, one of the world's foremost scholars on the ethical, legal, and societal implications of emerging technologies, names what is we are losing our cognitive liberty, the ability to trust our perceptions and govern ourselves. We can sense this intuitively, but we don’t recognize that these struggles present a dire threat to our institutions and the common ground beneath us all―the cognitive commonwealth itself.
After years of questioning these alarming trends, she found answers when she least expected through her own grief. When her daughter, Callista, passed away, Farahany’s cognitive world collapsed. As she tried to make sense of what was happening, she discovered that the mental capacities she had lost mirrored those being hollowed out across society through digital immersion.
What has been degraded, Farahany argues, can still be rebuilt. That begins with each of us. We must resist the temptation to sleepwalk into cognitive extinction and collectively recognize that our mental freedom is at stake. Only then can we reclaim a world in which humans find meaning and flourish.
Deeply felt and rigorously researched, Cognitive Extinction is a clarion call for all of us to pay attention to what we’re losing―while we can still feel ourselves losing it.
Having recently read a couple of books on neurology and cognition, Cognitive Extinction appealed to me as being another book in the same vein but one that appeared to be written from a different perspective, which caught my interest. Initially I was engaged and interested to read the effects of different modes of technology on our cognitive abilities. The parallel references to grief I at first found interesting; however, as the book progressed they became more and more prominent to the point where pages went by without mention of the technological aspect that had drawn me to the book. This doesn't mean the discussion was bad or uninteresting in and of itself; it just wasn't what I had signed up for from the blurb. I had expected some brief comparisons but a strong focus on technology. As such, some of my engagement with the work dropped off towards the end and I found myself skim reading through the pages that didn't hold my interest. For that reason, I am giving this one 3 stars, not because it was badly written but solely because it wasn't a good fit for me. Other readers, perhaps those who have gone through periods of heaving grieving themselves, may find this book resonates with them more deeply than it did with me.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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