his past spring on my way to the Santa Fe Institute, home to polymath thinkers and thinking, tucked into the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, I thought of writer Don DeLillo. I was bound for a conference called “Investigating Reality” that would feature talks by renowned physicists, mathematicians, philosophers, computer scientists, and artists. A scene from DeLillo’s novel came to mind because it captures for me what reality has felt like for so long.
The characters Jack and Murray take a drive in the country to a tourist attraction. Both are popular culture professors. As they near the attraction, they see road signs for it: THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA.
They stand in a grove of trees and watch the tourists click their cameras at the barn. Nearby a booth sells postcards of the barn. After a prolonged silence, Murray says, “No one sees the barn.
Once you’ve seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn.” He pauses. “They are taking pictures of taking pictures.
” The barn has been replaced by the representation of it. “We see only what the others see,” Murray says. “We’ve agreed to be part of a collective perception.
” DeLillo published in 1985, years before the omnipresence of cellphone cameras and Instagram. Today his prophecy is complete. (Hey, Nobel Prize committee, what’s taking so long?) The Grand Canyon, , the Eiffel Tower, have been vanquished from the public mind as real objects.
Only the selfie ta.