Technologies collapse the distance between a desire and its

fulfillment by reducing either the time or the effort involved. This

has long been the point on that new technologies have been 【M1】________

marketing, and digital technologies have only augmented a longstanding 【M2】________

trend. But they have done so to such a degree and the change may be 【M3】________

qualitative. Consider the ease on which we may now locate, purchase, 【M4】________

and receive commodities that just a few years ago would have taken us

considerably less time and trouble to acquire. The content of a book is 【M5】_________

only one of a multitude of possible examples, but it illustrates the point

remarkably well. Theoretical science in his view required aristocratic

repose and leisure, and anything of the sort existed in America. Instead, 【M6】_________

Americans were promiscuously active. All of this is marvelous and

fascinating and helpful, but cranks, and I’m not always above being a

crank, might point out that making something effortless and instant

umultaneously renders it ephemeral and trivial. If you eliminate the

effort and time involved realizing a desire, you also diminish the 【M7】_________

satisfaction and joy that attends the fulfillment. Beyond this, however,

there is also the matter of habits and assumptions and how those in turn 【M8】_________

shape individuals who together comprise of the political and economic 【M9】_________

culture of the nation. What sorts of habits, then, are inculcated by a

technological environment ordered around this general tendency?

Certainly not the kind of habits that sit well with the venerable

notion of delaying gratification. Nor, it would seem, would these habits 【M10】________

leave one well suited for the demands of citizenship.

【M4】