Technoplegia: Feeling Paralysed When Faced With Technology - English

On the scary and shady sides of technology, and a call to our consciousness to be on the job constantly

Does technology scare you?

If not, I'm curious why. I really would like to learn how do you manage to normalize a world-ruling power that is completely unpredictable.

I am often scared of technology.

It may seem unusual to say this as an engineer who has worked in IT for nearly two decades, but it is true. Although I was never in love with technology and never subscribe to technology journals or followed the flood of innovations, I did admire the aspect of information technologies that presented endless chances to address practical problems. What we were able to do was almost entirely limited by our imagination. Every day, I saw young people create virtual worlds out of nothing through collaborative efforts. It was a wonderful experience, and the most satisfying part of my job.

But there was also a shady side to technology that always pushed me away. It prevented me from being able to fully embrace it, take refuge in it, and trust it.

Technology was something much bigger than me.

With its nebulous, grayish, and transparent body extending up to the sky, I could only see it blurry. I could not measure its size or guess its limits, and I always felt what I felt in the face of something too big to understand. Technology is something that covers us all, causing me to feel doubt, fear, and respect.

There is more than that. Technoplegia is being paralyzed when faced with technology. Not being able to use it or even think of it.

Etymologically, plegia means paralysis, rooting from Ancient Greek, and techno+plegia brings the whole meaning.

Photo by Maximalfocus on Unsplash

So, what is technology? Is it so influential and perhaps dangerous to make a person feel paralyzed?

Look closely…

. Technology is more than just hovering robots in the future.

. It is the thing that determines when we wake up each morning and awakens us from our sleep.

. Technology is what keeps us constantly available and prevents us to get out of communication range.

. Technology enables us to communicate with individuals we don't know in seconds, to witness their personal lives, and sometimes even to spy on, envy, or emulate them.

. It is technology that makes artificial intelligence valuable, even when organic, genuine and underutilized ones are quite available all around.

. It is technology that causes us to often forget who is the boss of our life, that forces us to remind ourselves every day who is in charge—of course, ourselves, ideally.

I'm picturing a gloomy, even gothic view about technology, but that's how I feel in general. Is any of the sentences above sounds exaggerated? No, they are true.

Perhaps this is why, despite the abundance of apps available, I continue to rely on pens and notebooks to write, plan, and ponder. I feel like I'm fighting to save my physical presence in the world from vanishing at any moment by being in contact with physical objects and being grateful every day that the world hasn't yet become a metaverse. I have dozens of pens and notebooks I write delightedly with a cup of coffee that I made by a technological coffee maker! The solidarity of technology and physical world, perhaps the balance.

Fortunately, still some events occur to remind me that love, friendship, support, and unity are still human and non-virtual emotions, allowing me to relax a little and recognize that we are not yet virtual hallucinations teleporting elsewhere.

Notes & Reads:

It would be easier to write about the latest breakthroughs in AI, robots, or innovation when it comes to technology. In fact, we should sometimes do it. But in this piece, I want to draw attention to the other side of the medallion. To be more cautious when interacting with technology, we should "call our consciousness to be on the job."

Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, as the title suggests, focuses his torch on the decline in our ability to deep focus. He claims that we are in an attention crisis, with enormous external pressures stealing our attention.

The Shallows is based on Nicholas Carr's renowned essay, Is Google Making Us Stupid? He claims that in a society dominated by Google (now ChatCPT and its AI gang), where we can easily access information and entertainment, we have lost our ability to read books and think profoundly.

Have a wonderful week and weekend.

Till next week,

— Gulsun

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