When the histories are written years from now, our era will be defined by information technology in much the same way that the 1960s were defined by rock 'n' roll and social protest, or in the U.S., the '20s by Prohibition. People will look back with bewilderment at images of us — like we do at those strange '50s movie audiences in their 3-D glasses — incessantly stroking our phones in that compulsive and vaguely masturbatory way, head down, eyes glazed over, entirely disconnected from the world around us.