Are you bored of the endless scroll of your social media feed? Do you swipe left before considering the human being whose face you just summarily rejected? Do you skim articles on your screen in search of intellectual stimulation that never arrives? If so, this book is the philosophical lifeline you have been waiting for. Offering a timely meditation on the profound effects of constant immersion in technology, also known as the Interface, Wish I Were Here draws on philosophical analysis of boredom and happiness to examine the pressing issues of screen addiction and the lure of online outrage. Without moralizing, Mark Kingwell takes seriously the possibility that current conditions of life and connection are creating hollowed-out human selves, divorced from their own external world. While scrolling, swiping, and clicking suggest purposeful action, such as choosing and connecting with others, Kingwell argues that repeated flicks of the finger provide merely the shadow of meaning, by reducing us to scattered data fragments, Twitter feeds, Instagram posts, shopping preferences, and text trends captured by algorithms. Written in accessible language that references both classical philosophers and contemporary critics, Wish I Were Here turns to philosophy for a cure to the widespread unease that something is amiss in modern waking life.

マーク・キングウェルは本作で、我々がインターフェースという名の沼に溺れ、自己を喪失していく様を鮮烈に描き出しています。退屈の本質を抉り出し、スクロールする指先に宿る空虚な万能感を鋭く告発するその筆致は、冷徹でありながら驚くほど知的興奮に満ちています。 データの破片へと解体された現代人の孤独を、古今の哲学を縦横無尽に援用して紐解くプロセスの美しさは圧巻です。アルゴリズムに支配された日常の違和感を鮮やかに言語化し、真の生を取り戻すための羅針盤として、本作はあなたの魂を激しく揺さぶり、思考の地平を刷新してくれるに違いありません。