ALICE Good morning, son. MIKE ‘Morning...

ALICE Good morning, son.

MIKE ‘Morning, Mom.

ALICE Did you have a good night’s sleep?

MIKE Yes. How about you?

ALICE Of course. I assume you, Pat, and the children have been able to abstain from your obsessions.

MIKE A deal is a deal. What about you?

ALICE (holds up arm with bracelet) I’m prepared for a health emergency at any moment. (looks around) Where’s Pat?

MIKE She went out to get the newspaper.

ALICE Wonderful. The return of printed matter. And a book in your hand. I see we’re making progress already.

MIKE (points) Her iPad and iPhone are right here. And my computer is not on.

ALICE My, you are being good.

MIKE Thanks. (holds up book) Actually, I’m enjoying the break.

ALICE You, of all people! Stuck on the computer all day.

MIKE I do read when I’m on it.

ALICE What? The day-to-day tempest in a teapot. You know as well as I do that there is an enormous difference between information and knowledge.

MIKE I still do read books. (holds up e-reader) But usually on my Kindle. You know what that is?

ALICE Of course, the most regrettable intrusion into tradition that I can imagine. Thankfully, nothing will ever replace the cozy, distinguished feeling of holding a printed book in your hands. It’s the great and privileged tradition of the wise.

MIKE I agree, Mom. Yet there are certain things about digital books that I prefer. For instance, I can access every classic instantly. The e-reader is the easily manageable volume I always wished the complete works of Plato, Aristotle and Shakespeare were available in.

ALICE If Plato were alive today, do you think he would have an e-reader? Or a website? I can see it right now: Plato.edu.

MIKE I wonder if it’s taken. If so, he’d have to think up a variation, like Plato1.edu. But back to my Kindle. One of the best things is, nobody can borrow a book without returning it. In fact, the only thing I can’t get on it is The Philosopher’s Magazine, along with my other professional journals.

ALICE But, with all of your gadgets, you can’t possibly have as much time to read and think as you used to?

MIKE Regrettably, no. In fact, it’s a good thing I have an excellent memory. Seek pleasure and avoid pain. You become what you do. Moderation in all things. Life according to reason, which is virtue and leads to happiness. To determine the relative value of the brain and the genitals, which one would you rather have cut off?

ALICE When I read that argument in Aristotle, I was quite alarmed that he had lost his own sense of moderation. It would hardly take a genius to think of a more delicate argument.

MIKE Mother, is there anything you haven’t read?

ALICE Yes. The millions of books that get printed that have nothing whatever to do with the progress of the human race. Otherwise, I’ve read everything, in fact, twice. But about these confounded computers, etcetera. I remember when they took over the library. There was I was, happily stamping books in and out for over 40 years, and suddenly I had to learn how to “enter data.”

MIKE But didn’t it make your life easier?

ALICE Ease is not always a satisfactory recompense for the loss of something one has been doing his or her entire life. For a while, I even feared for the Dewey Decimal System, but, thankfully, it has survived! And, somehow, so have I. No doubt because I was able to retire. (holds wrist up) Are you sure I can’t persuade you to transgress? I can’t imagine wearing this electronic babysitter for the rest of my life.

MIKE One day you may be glad you are.

ALICE I should only live so long. (gives him a hug) Actually, I’m glad you’re all taking a brief sabbatical from your inane preoccupations.

MIKE So am I. But I do gain a lot from them. Imagine! I’m now aware of every event that’s happening of any significance anywhere in the world. We’ve gone beyond the global village. On the Internet, it’s as if the whole world is one room.

ALICE What a frightening concept! No, thank you! I’ve already taken my random sample of the human race and have come to understand that exceptional people are, by definition, rare. Now, listen to your mother. It’s all well and good for the people who must deal with everyday perturbations to be aware of them and I hope for the sake of suffering, and often brutally self-punishing, humanity that we eventually arrive at workable solutions to at least our most debilitating problems. But you have to think about your own remarkable promise and how to realize it.

MIKE I do have to get back to who I am. Maybe it all comes down to balance -- a new kind of balance we have to learn between the capabilities of high-tech and preserving our individuality.

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