Distracted
A Philosophy of Cars and Phones
Bringing together ideas from philosophy and cognitive science, Distracted leverages a postphenomenological perspective to reveal how our smartphones make us such bad drivers. Robert Rosenberger shows that we have developed habits of perception regarding our compulsive technology use—habits that may wrest our attention away from the road—and contends that a better understanding of why this combination of technologies is so dangerous could effectively adjust both habits and laws.
Ambitious and daring, Distracted is brilliantly written, and it pulls off the fine line between scholarly rigor and readability. Applying a philosophical arsenal, Robert Rosenberger works to shift our intuitions about phone usage in cars. The range of scholarly references is astounding: legal scholarship, policy, cellphone use, psychology, cognition, behavior, and an encounter at the end with moral theory. This is philosophy of technology at its most productive and valuable.
Robert P. Crease, author of The Leak: Politics, Activists, and Loss of Trust at Brookhaven National Laboratory
Although the dangers of texting while driving are widely known, many people resist the idea that phone usage will impair their driving. And connectivity features in new cars have made using technology behind the wheel only more tempting. What will it take to change people’s minds and behavior? Robert Rosenberger contends that a better understanding of why this combination of technologies is so dangerous could effectively adjust both habits and laws.
Rosenberger brings together ideas from philosophy and cognitive science to leverage a postphenomenological perspective that reveals how our smartphones make us such bad drivers. Reviewing decades of empirical studies in cognitive science, he shows that we have developed habits of perception regarding our compulsive technology use—habits that may wrest our attention away from the road.
Distracted develops innovative concepts for understanding technology-related habits and the ways that our relationships to our devices influence how we perceive the world. In turn, these ideas can help drivers be more cognizant of the effect of smartphone usage on their perceptions, better inform efforts to enact stricter regulations, and help us all to reflect more about the technologies that shape our lives.
Ambitious and daring, Distracted is brilliantly written, and it pulls off the fine line between scholarly rigor and readability. Applying a philosophical arsenal, Robert Rosenberger works to shift our intuitions about phone usage in cars. The range of scholarly references is astounding: legal scholarship, policy, cellphone use, psychology, cognition, behavior, and an encounter at the end with moral theory. This is philosophy of technology at its most productive and valuable.
Robert P. Crease, author of The Leak: Politics, Activists, and Loss of Trust at Brookhaven National Laboratory
The prominent philosopher Robert Rosenberger has written an absolutely brilliant, exciting, thorough, and well-researched book that addresses issues of distraction and driving that will engage both the general public and academics. A treasure trove of empirical studies, Distracted innovatively broadens the postphenomenological spectrum and offers a profound philosophical alternative to the cognitive theories that have dominated distraction research.
Cathrine Hasse, author of Posthumanist Learning: What Robots and Cyborgs Teach us About Being Ultra-social
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Data and Policy: The Evidence That We’re Bad at Driving While on the Phone
2. Cognitive Distraction: The Central Scientific Theory
3. Experiential Distraction: An Alternative Phenomenological Account
4. Evolving Technologies: Faster than Science and Regulation
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
