The Kansas City Public Library hosts author Eugene Halton for his ruminations on the battle between autonomy and automation as presented in his book The Great Brain Suck and Other American Epiphanies on Thursday, January 8, at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

In an information-saturated world populated by increasingly portable electronic devices, Americans seem to know less and less. Despite the interactive features of computers, mobile phones, iPods, and video games, studies show that Americans are increasingly alienated. Halton describes a country whose citizens are losing their autonomy to a growing reliance on automation – and finds a solution to this enfeebling modern materialism in inspiring visions deeply rooted in American culture.

Eugene Halton is professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame. His works include Meaning and Modernity: Social Theory in the Pragmatic Attitude and Bereft of Reason: On the Decline of Social Thought and Prospects for Its Renewal.