A Very Technical Boy, Epilogue

Thinking back on it, this nostalgic pariahblog.com post I wrote, way back in 2009, about my youthful techno-geekery feels quaint today. My so-called Matrix moment strikes me now as a delusive notion lit upon by a naïve mind. I want to ask that previous me, "How were you so lured by technology's siren song?"

Don't get me wrong; I embrace technology and all that it can offer our lives. Advances in the fields of energy, food production, physics, and medicine stand to improve countless lives, human and otherwise. But smart watches? Next-gen doorbell cameras? Talking water bottles? This stuff is to technology as pork rinds are to prosciutto.

Previous me would roll his eyes at the conscientious objector I've become. The kid took too seriously his Neal Stephenson and William Gibson. He dreamed like Blade Runner electric sheep. How else to explain why he kept his head in the cloud, fantasizing about humankind's technologically enhanced future. He wanted human gene splicing, 3D-printed food, biometric home security, virtual reality with twice the resolution of meatspace (and, yes, he made liberal use of the word "meatspace"), computer-aided fashion, robot housekeepers, an implant that put the Internet in his eyeball. He wanted gadgets and geegaws galore — all with free lifetime upgrades. Oh, how people change.

If the Singularity arrived tomorrow, I'd shelter in place, face buried in a bound, hardcover, not to say "real" book. Technologically aided transcendence of my physical form isn't a concept that holds luster for me anymore. Let me stay here in the dust and disorder, chilling with the Luddites. I'm reformed, not re-formed. I'm even a little wary of owning a smartphone, lest its dark power overthrow my restraint and autonomous spirit.

Whence this line of thought? Here I am, sitting in a maximum-security prison, decades from having last handled a cellphone; why would my mind romp off in the direction of a Kurtzweilian merging of my consciousness with machines? And what's that got to do with that fifteen-year-old blog post? I feel sometimes like a man in amber. (My poem "Thoughts of a Human Time Capsule" offers a little expansion of this idea.) There is a world beyond this one; you inhabit it, and your ways have become strange to me.

Twenty-three years apart from society's influences would habituate even the most stalwart technophile to a low-tech existence. Yes, I use a computer every day, all day, for work, so maybe it seems hypocritical to claim that I'm against excessive technological impositions. There's a path of moderation to be considered here. A person can't justify "needing" something as patently nonessential as AI-generated recipes. Beyond a certain point, it gets stupid. We get stupid.

Studies show that people who frequently rely on GPS do much more poorly on spatial-orientation tests than people who don't, implying that pulling up Google Earth to locate every bangin' house party you attend is sapping your innate human ability to make your way around our planet.

Being in prison for years on end, you can easily find excuses to divorce yourself from the world at large. I've stayed away from politics, and from most news media in general, since the divisive presidential campaign of 2016 drove me away from news coverage — and I've become a happier person since. Since I can't vote or create much in the way of meaningful change in the world outside this place, this stance isn't hard to maintain. It's also perfectly defensible. If I got out, not so much.

It's the same with technology. I prefer to be tethered to the big payphone-style handsets in the wing than have mobility. The convenience of using a phone app on my tablet doesn't mitigate the fact that the call quality is shitty and prone to dropping at random. Would I feel the same if I had the newest Samsung Galaxy iteration? It's easy to be a conscientious objector when the alternative objectively sucks.

This all sounds like sour grapes. It's not, really.

Engagement is what the world demands, but what that engagement looks like depends on a lot of different factors. Rather than technology for technology's sake, as I used to think was appropriate, today I expect tech to remain in its place, utterly subservient to humankind. This demands judicious use, careful self-monitoring, mindful consideration of costs and benefits.

I was active on social media years before anyone called it social media. I'm composing this blog post right now from a prison cell, on a seven-inch tablet computer. I work in a concrete room at a three-monitor workstation running Windows 11. In spite of reasonable expectations, circumstances have by no means stranded me in the Dark Ages. If I got out of prison tomorrow, there's not much I'd bring with me. This attitude would be one thing. My enthusiasm for tech has waned, while my sense of preciousness of how direct contact with the world has grown.

If I were to get out, watch for my podcast, my Instagram, my TikTok feed (if TikTok's still around). Watch and be prepared to witness a case study in judicious, almost begrudging tech use.