ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a thought experiment inspired by philosopher Blaise Pascal's suggestion that the sole cause of humanity's unhappiness is the inability to be content in an empty room. The heuristic aim of this exercise is to go in search of an idea of the self by contemplating its radical negation: the non-self. This is then developed further by exploring what might be understood by the ‘digital self’, deployed here as a provisional concept by which to situate posthuman discourses of the self within everyday social worlds that are being transformed by rapid advancements in digital technology. Our entanglements with these worlds not only pose the problem of being content in an empty room but also of having content in an empty room: the consumerist imperative of the digital age. The final section of the chapter takes its cue from analysis of scenes from three very different films which each serve to prompt reflection on the at-homeness of the self as variously manifest in dwellspaces of memory.
