I’m only 27 and I’m already feeling like the old man warning that the invention of movable type will end the Catholic Church. Look at that? Its still cracking on. Some things never change.
I just got back from a trip through the Swiss Alps where we very pleasantly traversed from city to country side by public trains and boats. Their train system makes the New York Subway system look like its run by a carnival for kindergarteners. I also noticed as we left the city we were almost immediately in the countryside. No suburbs in sight. The two are intrinsically linked.
I grew up on the cusp of the digital age. In my middle school years alone I saw a change from VHS to DVD to short lived Blu-Ray to the streaming we know (and love?) today. In hindsight that’s an insane amount change in a short amount of time.
In the tech world the word innovation gets thrown around like a child on an inner tube when your uncle is driving the boat. YOU CAN HANDLE IT! Its a catch all term for “progress” and “improvement” but whose progress and whose improvement?
It became a running social/internet joke after the tenth iPhone was released that each year it just gets smaller, slimmer, more waterproof and - ope - a different charging port, sorry about that. People get so frenzied by NEW and IMPROVED that they fail to ask themselves what they actually want out of tech.
I see technology as a bell curve. See below, I made this graph all by myself! On the y axis we have joy and on the x axis we have innovation. The landline was low innovation because it was connected to the wall in your parents’ home and low on joy because, well, it was connected to the wall in your parents’ home. The flip phone gave us more joy as we roamed free and texted things like sup? The blackberry was the peak of innovation meets joy as we were free to send longer messages and emails, play rudimentary games, or search something simple on google from ANYWHERE! The safety and accessibility that came with this technology cannot be understated. All with a screen that I kind of hated to look at and certainly wasn’t chemically altering my brain. Then the iPhone and every iteration after slowly but surely melting away our serotonin as the innovation train chugs along killing anything standing in its way. But yay this one is… slimmer?
Let’s take transportation for another example. I’ve become deeply passionate about this as a touring comedian who takes planes, trains, cars, scooters, feet and yes, even sometimes boats, to gigs. Switzerland has my heart.
If I could go back in time and change a part of history, after knocking off baby Hitler and baby you know who, I would convince the early 1900’s federal and state governments to ignore Gerald Ford and to lean into high speed rail.
Imagine a high speed train that gets you to your destination as quickly as a flight but you don’t have take your shoes off or get patted down by an old man. The seats are comfortable and spacious, the views are great and the likelihood of a crash is way lower than any other mode of transportation.
We certainly shouldn’t have invented the car. Cars are the among leading killer of Americans. Unless you’re a child, then its a gun. And unless you’re a woman, then its a man. But we love to protect adult men in this country, so all the more reason to ditch the cars! Beyond our safety, cars are of course horrible for the environment and have contributed to the crisis of suburbia we find ourselves in today. Would getting the kids to activities be a nightmare if we swapped the minivans for walkable communities and reliable safe public transit?
I think one of the biggest scams about LA is that its suburbia with city prices. Okay, fine, I’ll concede there is more culture in Los Angeles than suburbia, USA - BUT can that culture bleed and blend throughout a city where most people go from their private home, to their private car, to their private workplace, to a private dinner, back to their private home, and watch the day’s news on a private phone complete with a private algorithm perfectly crafted for their private little world? I am fully aware that in New York, while we are on a pubic subway, we are glued to our phones with noise cancelling earbuds in. Its a long journey back to the social skills we collectively once had, but it starts with actually being around people from other walks of life. And it only takes one guy taking a shit on the train to create community, isn’t that beautiful?
Was it actually a great innovation that we were able to create private modes of transportation? Or was this creation to ensure more privatization and suburban development? A development that allowed wealthy white people to flee to suburbs and commute into cities; leaving the cities and the folks living to fend for themselves as those same wealthy white people and the corporations they run actively divested from public transit. No matter where we turn in the US everything will always come back to racism and classism. These were the driving forces behind the development of cars and the highway system, packaged like most tech as a huge innovation for humankind and a convenience that will reshape the way we live.
The iPhone similarly, was born of the promise of convenience. I was having this conversation with my mom the other day where I told her people my age and younger are actually getting back into film photography, digital cameras, polaroids and even disposables. She was shocked, isn’t the whole point of having the phone on our cameras so we can carry one less thing? Perhaps this shows a window into the life of a mother of four who spent nearly two decades carrying things for herself and five others. I tried to explain I think this is a backlash against tech for people who were born around or after the tech boom. I know many young people who yearn for a pre social media era. Its one of the few glimmers of hope I see in this techno-hellfire we live in.
Now the threat of AI continues to loom over us. The unfortunate reality is we won’t know how bad it will get until it does. I am grateful that Youtube has taken a stand against it by not allowing videos that use AI to be monetizable. Are the heads of Youtube protecting people and artists? Or are they simply uninterested in paying people who can get away with monetizing the fuck out of them by using AI to mass produce content? Probably the latter, but my hope is on a micro and macro scale we actually start to think about our relationship to technology and innovation. What will make our world a better place? Not a more convenient place or a more monetizable place but a happier, cleaner, safer place. Can’t AI help solve logistical problems we can’t even see that would reroute wasted food to a starving area? If AI is going to replace certain jobs can it also find money in the federal budget to subsidize the former workforce? Shouldn’t that be the goal? For tech to solve the problems we can’t see solutions for? To free us from the prison of the 40 hour work week and give that time back to living and enriching ourselves and our communities?
If you’re a casual user of AI - using Chat GPT for therapy or refusing to write your own emails, I urge you to at least consider how and why you’re using this technology. Are you using AI to write your email so that you can step outside and write your novel or even in your journal? Or are you using AI to write your email so you can scroll on TikTok? I’d say I’m not judging you, but I am. I’m judging all of us, most of all myself and my own crippling phone addiction. We have more collective and individual agency than we are being made to think. You don’t have to drive a car, you don’t have to travel by plane, you don’t have to buy the newest iPhone. I concede some of these are easier said than done, and I bet you’re reading this from your iPhone! And I’m actively booking plane travel! Nonetheless, we CAN use less AI - even no AI. We don’t have to be convinced its the only way because we know that’s not true. When future children look back at the history books - or history tablets - or the AI spits out history for them - we will be the people who existed at the birth of AI. Will you be one of the sheep who enabled the ruling class to force us further into economic decline, depression and individualism all because you asked AI what you should do about your breakup? Get a journal! Call a friend! Start a substack!
I hope that we can usher in an era of technology where we exist at the top of the bell curve. The perfect meeting of innovation and joy that makes us feel like fuller, healthier versions of ourselves. Think of how happy the world could be if we were taking public transit to our walkable city center and texting our friends from our flip phones or blackberries c u soon.
SONG OF THE WEEK:Bitin’ List by Tyler Childers
I know I already picked a song off this album last week, but its just so damn good I had to pick another! Tyler is a long time favorite of mine because of his lyrics, his sound and every once in a while he has a really funny song. Charleston Girl is another that makes me laugh. I hope you enjoy :)
I’m posting every Wednesday at Lunch! Sometimes they’ll be long and thoughtful and sometimes they might be a listicle, but either way, you’ll hear from me on Wednesdays at Lunch!
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Your perspective is heartfelt and true for so many. I'm a generation older and remember when it felt paradoxically as though connections were stronger to have less technological connection (pre cell phones.) Neighbors introduced themselves, people talked long on landlines, and everyone had better posture. Of course, here I am getting entertained by reading your perspective on my android and I was only introduced to you through the world wide web connection. I do drag a line at Zuckerberg, however... no Meta for me. Thanks for being available with your thoughts on Substack and your comedy on YouTube, Nico.
Your perspective is heartfelt and true for so many. I'm a generation older and remember when it felt paradoxically as though connections were stronger to have less technological connection (pre cell phones.) Neighbors introduced themselves, people talked long on landlines, and everyone had better posture. Of course, here I am getting entertained by reading your perspective on my android and I was only introduced to you through the world wide web connection. I do drag a line at Zuckerberg, however... no Meta for me. Thanks for being available with your thoughts on Substack and your comedy on YouTube, Nico.