Gotta B

ooking back, Talbot Blair realised that it all began that Monday morning when his best friend, Rick Lawrence, abruptly became a disconnect …In the near future, all communication devices are linked to individual users no-one can use an electronic item belonging to someone else. The worst possible fate is to lose that link and become a disconnect. If you can’t connect with your friends, you might as well cease to exist. In Talbot Blair’s world, changes in brain structure have been detected in young people, who have never known a world that didn’t contain computers and the Internet. They have always been immersed in an electronic sea of interconnectedness and instant communication. Social psychologist Carter Renfrew’s theory is that constant exposure to this electronic environment has re-wired adolescent brains so they are developing into a different species. Renfrew dubs this next evolutionary leap in humankind ‘Homo electronicus’. But what happens when Homo electronicus is taken offline?