The Angst
I often stare at all my technological devices trying to probe their relation to me. When I do this, a realization hit that I usually lacked the understanding of the very things that consumed so much of my daily life. This not only created an angst but a new yearning to separate myself from all my various devices. The start of this separation was developing an understanding that I am a human that can exist naturally with the world around me and sustain myself on the fruits of the earth.
My devices, on the other hand, become foreign in the natural world without me and slowly perishes. How can we as humans better relate to an entity that requires so much attention from us to exist? The answer to this question lies in understanding what I would call the soul of our devices. Or a simpler term, the form of our devices.
Humanness in Technology
Technology cannot exist without humans creating and maintaining it. When using technology, we need to foster a human first mindset where we ask the question: What aspect of humanness does a technology seek to improve? Humans after all are the creators of technology, so anything technology is capable of stems from the innate ingenuity of the human who created the technology. Any technology being used by a human is an extension of the will of the human using it.
One way not to be baffled by the capabilities of the computer is to look at our role as users. Technology has progressed so much since the time of our ancestors that it is almost impossible to understand every part without a dedicated study, but we should be able to probe the general function of a computing device.
Humans are extraordinary computing devices that happened naturally. We are an extension of the infinite wisdom and creative potential of nature. As humans our only limitation is time. Given infinite time I believe we can do anything a computer can do, but we don’t have infinite time. Computers and technology are our way of extending our creative potential into a more efficient medium so that we can get a certain amount of work done.
Holistic Use
The start of the holistic use of technology begins when we understand it holistically. A computer is a device that manipulates information or data. It can store, retrieve, and process data. The two main parts of a computer are hardware and software. Hardware is the physical structure of a computer while software is the commands that tell the computer what and how to do something. Hardware is like the brain, while software is like the mind.
Machines have ways of communicating with each other called machine code, just like how we have our voice and language to communicate with each other. Computers have a memory as well, and manipulation of machine code tells a computer to change something in its memory. Luckily computers are only capable of doing what we tell them to, if they did whatever they wanted to do then they would have free-will, yikes!
Instead of using complex machine code to manipulate a computer’s memory, we developed programming languages. Manipulation of a computer happens in a 3-step process, we write code in our programming language, this is then complied and turned into machine code, then the computer executes the code. The art of becoming a lord over the computer is called programming. Through programming, we can get the computer to behave exactly how we want it to. Every line of programming code is a script, each script is designed to do a job. Everything done using software is a combination of scripts.
Forming a Healthy Relationship
Every kind of app, game, or website is a program. Now we are full circle to what we are using right now, a program. We have found the light we are looking for. The holistic use of computers comes from understanding our role in the relationship with the devices we are using. Next time you use any of your devices take a step back and consider where you begin and where your device ends. Conscious probing on how your devices work and are used by you will help you understand the growing modern relationship of man and his device.
