Those of us in the Western World who have a heartbeat know that our world is changing from one of human contact to apps, amazon, and amorphous choices of press 1,2,3,4, or 5.

Working from home 2-3 days of our 5-day work week.

Ordering our goods and services online.

Taking classes and workshops on Zoom.

Getting into and out of parking lots with photos of the car license plates.

Scanning bar codes in the grocery store and then weighing the cart to get the bill…paid by digital wallet.

Booking.com, Skyscanner.net. Audiobooks.com. Waze. Bit. Moovit. iHerb. DoorDash. Kindle. MediSearch Ai, Mayoclinic.org, AccruWeather, PictureThis plant identifier, Healmeup: Online Therapy, Audiodharma. You name it, it’s out there. No human contact required.

Whatever you want or need, or think you might want or need, you can probably find it online without ever having to face an in-person experience, goddess forbid.

Of course, even for those who look forward to driverless cars, being served in restaurants by robots, and being diagnosed by Ai, there are still the inevitable bugs in programs that sometimes transport us from Sartre’s pre-21st century No Exit waiting room to ‘the man who never returned’ from the Boston subway system.

As a confusing or confused boyfriend of mine used to say, “You can’t win for losing.”

For a decade we’ve been able to order on one of multiple screens at many fast food joints, but still be left languishing for as long as we used to wait because of the bottleneck of human beings filling and packaging orders.

Just yesterday trying to leave a fully digitalized parking lot, the payment screen in the lot was out of order, and the payment option at the exit didn’t open the gate. An actual human being had to be beckoned to release us from digital purgatory.

And when my husband (and many others) tried to renew his gun license, it turned out that a bug in the new, totally digitalized process had to be manually bypassed, a feat only accomplished after a week of attempts and phone consultations. At one point, in frustration, he told the person (human being!) on the phone that he would just come down to the office. Of course the reply was – “THERE IS NO OFFICE ANYMORE.”

Inefficiencies, defective programs, and repetitive operations aside, there are far more serious ramifications of a world with minimal human contact. A world our grandchildren perhaps and certainly our great-grandchildren will inherit if things continue as they are.

Already many taken-for-granted civilities have disappeared. I often shudder at the epithets, vulgarity, and just plain meanness people allow themselves online.

And, in spite of all the talk about “seeing the other” what we are seeing is increasing alienation and lack of patience and tolerance for the other, whether it be a Jew, a Republican, a Democrat, or a white heterosexual male.

I heard a woman I respect casually mention that we live in a Post-Truth Age. She wasn’t critical of that definition. She just stated it as a fact of life. And another person, in a different conversation and context, spoke about living in a Post-Literate Age. Again, not critically but realistically, pointing out that people no longer read and rarely research their opinions.

I receive automatic information online which caters to my political beliefs, my travel habits, my health issues, and my clothing size. The internet knows me and provides only that information that it believes I will find pleasing. I never have to be confronted with different ideas, life choices, or realities.

Anti-Israel? Your news will report the successful bombing of 1000 people in Tel Aviv by Iran and Israel’s intentional freezing of hundreds of Arab children in the (non-existent) snow in Gaza.

Pro-Israel? Your news will report the weakening of the Iranian regime and the IDF’s protection of the Druze population in Syria.

If you don’t have a smartphone it’s challenging to:

park the car

make medical appointments

find a partner

pick up a package

pay a parking ticket

meet a friend for coffee

register for…anything

At least half of our sixteen grandchildren prefer to be inside their home on their phones than outside or even somewhere else inside with a friend. Admittedly, some of their time on their phones inside their homes is spent chatting with their friends…who are inside their own homes on their phones. Often the conversation is about a tik-tok (has that changed to something else?) clip they’re both watching.

In the future, if kids no longer go to a physical school but to an online school, maybe they won’t have human friends. Where will they meet them?

Today 58.4% of all American households are childless. Another 20% have a single child

In countries of the European Union 76.6% of all households are childless, and 50% of all households with dependent children have only one child.

We’re looking at a future Western world where the hoped-for plan of the late 60s – zero population growth – is being realized. And those humans who are still around apparently won’t be meeting each other in the workplace or in schools or shops.

Considering that religious observance is on the decline, with only 30% of Americans reporting that they attend religious services, and with that number taking a nosedive in the European Union to 14%, we can add church, synagogue, and mosque to the growing list of places where our grandchildren will NOT be meeting people.

What kind of world will that be? What will become of social behavior when there’s no physical social interaction?

One thing is for sure – it will not be a world we are familiar with yet.

Before we hang our heads at the anticipated bleakness of this ‘Brave New World’, let’s take a minute to consider that every generation despairs of the upcoming generation. They have music, technology, beliefs the septuagenarians don’t understand or much agree with.

I am tempted to think that no generation has faced the total change in every arena that we face today, but maybe every generation thinks that.

Is it possible that the future holds adventures, surprises, and wonderful things resulting from the technological advances that free people from work? That the economics of it all will work out in spite of our misgivings? That we just cannot imagine such a world – much less the positive aspects it may hold?

There’s no reason for us to stop reading and enjoying good books, good face-to-face conversation, and a commitment to the greater good. The possibility of those things has not disappeared yet and probably won’t until we’re no longer here to observe their disappearance.

I believe it’s unfortunate that Lord of the Flies, The Fountainhead, and Robert A. Heinlein’s classic sci-fi masterpiece The Moon is a Harsh Mistress are no longer general knowledge for young adults. Well-written fiction that inspires deep philosophical, societal, and political concepts has been a source of meaningful discussion and thought for as long as some people have had enough free time to read.

Now people have no lack of time, but many lack the attention span and/or the interest.

I believe that’s unfortunate.

But I’m 73.

My world has been a world of books, of honesty and objective reporting (yes, I DO believe that Walter Cronkite reported the news and not his personal opinion cloaked as the news), of mostly putting others’ welfare before my own, of satisfaction being measured by a job well done, of punctuality, fiscal responsibility, and nurturing a healthy relationship with my conscience and G-d.

I experience my kind of world as a positive place.

I don’t know how future generations will experience a post-truth, post-literate world if that’s indeed what their world will bring. I don’t know how they will experience a world with significantly less human contact in shared spaces.

I don’t know what that will look like, but I want to believe that it will bring satisfying new territory both personally and communally. Territory that we baby boomers can visualize as positive only as well as our parents, and even more so our grandparents, could visualize ours as positive. Which is to say that it’s a struggle.

And, ultimately, it doesn’t matter how we view it so why worry? I vote for enjoying our antiquated world while appreciating, and sometimes laughing at, the deep dive into the unknown which is our offsprings’ reality.

After all, it’s their brave new world.

We had our turn.