I haven’t written anything meaningful for almost a full week. You might think that it is due to election anxiety, but I am not American so that was at best a distraction. Given what I used to do for a living, the elections held some interest for me. Speaking as an outsider, it was disturbing to see such rampant divisions fuelled by so much anger. But all I can do is wish Americans all the very best of luck.
The real reason behind my lack of effort for the past six days is more… prosaic. A good euphemism would be “technical difficulties”, to mask the plain and simple fact that my laptop broke down. I’m not a total tech idiot, I had successfully solved earlier occurrences of the problem, but as of the Sunday after Halloween, I had to accept that my laptop had bit the dust like a horny teen in a slasher movie. The figurative Michael Myers had gotten it good.
To be honest – I have a back-up laptop, one I had bought in 2013 in preparation for my Master’s degree programme which was starting later that year. It has survived many a mishap and still ticks along, albeit a lot more slowly than it did in its youth. However, I had grown accustomed to the keyboard layout of the machine I am currently using (having finally resolved all issues through visits to two different service centres and multiple phone calls and emails). The process of typing on the older machine was painful. Excruciatingly so.
I am well aware of the large role played by technology and its creations in our everyday lives. Even in the rural corners of the world, technology has sunk nascent roots and is working to further seed its growth. Just a decade ago, I had not paid attention to the term ‘singularity’. I can’t tell if the notion that the machines will surpass us is a matter of when and not if has become an accepted fact.
Just earlier today, I was reading up on Roko’s basilisk, a thought experiment which was and still is considered a terrifying thought experiment. The idea that even now, one could be tormented for a defiance that has not occurred, or is in service of a malevolent force towards its own creation, is mind-boggling but I can see where the horror comes from.
Beyond the niche circles of those who spend considerable time thinking about the potential risks of growing technology, there is far less agony. Most of us have come to take it for granted, and consumerism has been driven by technology while also driving the consumption of technology. News of a new phone or other product from Apple receives as much as, if not more attention than key resolutions or communiques at the United Nations.
The pervasive role of technology is undeniable, and the rise of the concept of the digital detox and its merits attests to its omnipresence in life. Growing concerns over the role that social media plays in manipulating people’s thoughts and opinions may well be but the tip of the digital iceberg that could sink us all.
It might happen without you noticing at all until your tech breaks down. And one day, technology may very well not need us to fix it while we become reliant on them to fix us.
Assuming they would bother.
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