In the ruins of ancient Pompeii a graffito was discovered, a plea for silence scrawled across a wall: ‘Enough! Be quiet!’¹⁴

It’s 7.00 A.M. I wake up to the sound of a syncopated, cheery marimba alarm. I’m growing to loathe its tinny major key and upward inflection, but it’s the only alarm on the iPhone that is guaranteed to wake me up. I must reach over and pick it up, as scrolling my fingers across the screen is the only way to silence it. No indelicate jabs at a snooze button for the shiny touch screen interfaces of the twenty-first century.