As if human beings did not already have enough excuses for keeping their eyeballs permanently fixed on one variety of screen or another, a new all-consuming distraction has burst forth into existence to further challenge the apparent tedium of reality.
The phenomenon, of course, is Pokemon Go, the "augmented reality" mobile phone game that debuted in early July and rapidly amassed more daily users than even such institutionalised addictions as Twitter.
It has soared to unprecedented popularity especially in the United States, where its developer - Niantic Inc - is also based. . . .
At first glance, Pokemon Go might seem at least less pernicious than other experiments in reducing the human race to automaton status, in that it forces players to get out, move around, "experience" things - and perhaps crash into a police car or get robbed in the process.
But the fact is that the whole enterprise still feeds into the idea that life itself should be a video game - which happens to be the same premise that underlies, for example, the high-tech warfare of drones and other methods of remote-control killing. READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.