Sebastian Faulks added one of those iridescent, unidentifiable multi-colour feathers (pheasant?) to his old man’s hatband by saying the internet is a great place for shopping but cannot be the home to serious thinking. Aw, isn’t that cute? Just adorable! And fascinating. We’re getting a real treat here, folks: the chance to witness firsthand the creation of bewildered old man. The intricate-yet-sublimely-predictable dance of life continues its endless, beautiful cycle. Let’s watch…!

“There is probably a net loss of knowledge inside our heads,” he says. “It worries me but I am trying not to sound despondent. The internet is good for quick checking or buying a pair of shoes but as a repository of deeper thought and wisdom it has some way to go.”

For the author of such a savage portrait of the times, Faulks sounds quite blithe and easy-going. His agreeably mournful face does not seem creased with anxiety. For every darkness he exposes, except perhaps for the psychotic effects of skunk, he has a counterbalance.

Online networking sites and addictive role-play computer games are worrying, but access to knowledge is easier. Not all bankers and hedge fund managers are as rapacious as the inhuman Veals.

“I am just saying: this is where we are. There are quite serious dangers. At the same time, I am not altogether despondent or pessimistic about how this will turn out because we are, if nothing else, an adaptable species.

“I am not preaching, in so far as I don’t have an answer. The only people who have answers are religious people and politicians. I’m neither religious not political. All I am offering is a vague humanistic thing. It may sound soppy to say love is the answer, it is more complicated than that – but it helps.”