I think Carr’s main point is that automation is overwhelmingly negative and takes away basic human experiences, leading to existential suffering. To argue this, Carr differentiates between technology and automation, seeming to argue that automation takes away the intrinsic value that technology has to humans. He says “Technology is our nature (Carr, 215).” Technology is what allows people to grow and experience the world and evolve (Carr 218), and yet automation takes that away from us and pulls us way from the world (Carr 219). This automation leads not only to a stagnation of human evolution and experience, but also to suffering that stems from that. Carr argues that miswanting, or being “. . . inclined to desire things we don’t like and to like things we don’t desire (Carr 15),” is exasperated by automation, leading us to have more free time we desire but don’t like and less work that we like but don’t desire (Carr 15). Carr argues that this causes depression, anxiety, ADHD, and suicide in modern people (Carr 220). While Carr may state that he does not think automation is the cause of all of humanities woes, it seems obvious from his actual writing that he is very strongly against automation.

My life is full of automated gadgets that allow me to function at the level of efficiency and comfort I do. One example is the computer I am using to write this short essay. The machine itself, which works in a system with multiple other machines to create a network, allows me to press keys that are associated with certain letters in the Latin alphabet in order to spontaneously generate them without having to draw each stroke and character. While automatically translating my analog inputs into digital ones, there is also a part of the machine automatically processing these new digital inputs. That part, the Central Processing Unit (CPU), then automatically tells another part called a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to render the letters and strings that have been imputed on a connected machine that then automatically changes the brightness of minuscule lights to create an analog message for me to interpret. These is so much more this system and greater network of machines could do and without it, I would lose an extraordinary amount of abilities. Without this one system, I would not be able to access unfathomable stores of information, participate in university courses, or even write anything in a clear way that is devoid of the personal and potentially illegible stylization that comes from handwriting.

Finally, in response to Carr, I have several issues with his arguments and his methods of presenting data. On page 220, Carr mentions statistics from the CDC about the rise of depression, anxiety, ADHD, and suicide within the past few decades. While he says that we don’t necessarily know the cause, he argues that some of it could be a result of miswanting and automation (220, Carr). I believe that making this statement falls back on the myth that correlation is causation and is ultimately a weak point to use to uphold an argument due to how many other factors there are that could be causing an increase in these numbers. For example, everyone could have been depressed and anxious before, but because of the stigma surrounding having these issues, no one ever readily admitted it. If anything, automation could be helping us address mental health issues in out society by allowing us to connect and be more open with one another through the internet. It’s now okay to have mental health issues and the address them like a responsible adult. These statistics could also be caused by increased existential stress due to climate change and a fluctuating economy. I feel that using this as a point in his argument really weakens it because of all these other, more readily available explanations.

Carr, Nicholas G. The Glass Cage: Automation and Us. W.W. Norton & Company, 2014.