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As the Screen Age whirls on and screen-agers sit enraptured before glowing squares of light--enthralled by our manifestation of Plato's cave, what Rebecca Solnit calls the "river of shadows"--our pursuit of the electronic dream wreaks havoc on the living world as the Earth turns beneath the ever-thickening membrane of greenhouse gases. Our ability to live in virtual realms will stand us in good stead once our exploitation of nature results in a thoroughly looted and weedy biosphere. As we write, read, surf, scroll, talk, watch, sample and shop, the manufacture of our marvelously smart and companionable machines, seemingly clean objects, involves the use of toxic chemicals that are now found all around the world embedded in soil, ice, water, air and the bodies of living humans and animals. Add to that the burgeoning problem of discarded electronics, known as e-waste or high-tech trash. Mammoth mounds of junked computers, cell phones and printers occupy landfills, and our used gadgets are shipped by the ton to Third World countries where people without machines or even electricity break apart our rejects, exposing themselves and their land, water and air to a malignant assortment of permanent biological toxins (PBTs). The virtual world has an all too tangible impact on the living earth.
Let us not forget the precariousness of the grid. What happens to our romance with all things digital if the seemingly infinite supply of electricity that illuminates our screens and moves our cursors is interrupted or curtailed?
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