Back in the 1970s, futurism was all the rage. But looking forward is
becoming a thing of the past. According to Douglas Rushkoff, presentism is
the new ethos of a society that's always on, in real time, updating live.
Guided by neither history nor long term goals, we navigate a sea of media
that blend the past and future into a mash-up of instantaneous experience.
Rushkoff shows how this trend is both disorienting and exhilarating. But we
are in danger of squandering this cognitive surplus on trivia. Rushkoff
shows how we can instead ground ourselves in the present tense.