Kant Against Your Oculus Rift

Our technological age is usually praised as a linear progression toward better and better — from dumbphone to smartphone, from record to cassette to CD to MP3, and so on. But amid this triumphant march, large swaths of marchers are heel-turning toward superseded means of watching and listening: Hipsters keep their VHS collections, bands doggedly release their latest EPs on cassette tapes, and photographers continue to use film long after its supposed “death,” surprising film manufacturers like Harman Technology with a “film growth of 5 percent year-on-year globally.”

In fact, bewilderment by industry experts has become standard fare in technology reporting. No one expected the use of e-readers to peak in 2011, innovation to slow, and real books to make a steady comeback. No one expected that in 2017, vinyl pressing plants would become so throttled with business that manufacturers would be unable to meet demand and new plants would open up shop. Even the dumbphone has a new niche market of enlightened users wary of the addictive effects of the smartphone’s constant connectivity. Old tech may be small potatoes compared to the overall rise of internet technologies, but its successes are always reported in the breathless tone of sports announcers marveling at an underdog’s comeback: “The e-reader device is dying a rapid death,” “Vinyl records sales outstrip digital sales for the first time…