William Davies's 2023 LRB Winter Lecture looks at why reactions – facial expressions, gestures or emojis – have become the main currency of the digital public sphere. Ubiquitous surveillance and smartphones have made the spontaneous reaction a thing to be cultivated, collected and stored. How did we come to endow reaction with such significance, and what might an escape from the reaction economy look like?

Listen to Davies discuss this lecture on the LRB Podcast: https://lrb.me/davieslecturepod

Read the lecture here: https://lrb.me/willdavieslectureyt

Recorded at Conway Hall, London, on 10 February 2023

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(From Youtube)