Last week a woman turned fifty-two. A total of rorty-three people wished her happy birthday. Every one of them found out from a notification, not a memory, and most clicked "Happy birthday!" without opening her profile, without wondering how she actually was, without a single thought crossing their mind beyond the prompt in front of them. She told me later that it was the loneliest birthday she'd had in years, and she'd had more messages than ever. That's not a technology p
