The philosophy of living in a digital world
Or: why the future will be perfectly awful.
For the very first time in the history of humanity, we are living in a digital age that has since become a physical dystopia. As our lives and dreams are increasingly structured and formed by our addiction to the perfectionistic ideal of the digital world, our intelligence uploads itself to the artificial cloud.
We are no longer human beings in search for meaning but digital nomads in search for likes, gigabytes and efficient self-optimisation. We carry around small little pocket computers that are capable of almost everything, from documenting our lives in abstract numbers to telling us where to go next in life. And so, surviving without immediate access to the realm of the Digital has become a matter of life and death.
Life is no longer a physical act of existence but a simulated game of zeros and ones, digitised to the point that we can no longer be sure if we’re not actually living in a multiversal matrix. The spirit of the Digital is always with us and never leaves us out of sight, to protect us from the random imperfections of the physical world. How generous of it. So why would anyone in their right mind want to leave behind that perfect illusion of a digital world?
After all, living in a digital world means to live a perfectly orchestrated life. No more unwanted surprises, no more lack of information, no more decisions to be made — and no more imperfections. From waking up in the morning and drinking your first cup of coffee, to cleaning the house and eating dinner — the smart home has you covered. Or is it not merely an automated home?
In every case, the digital Intelligence (read French) helps you to make any decision by making every decision for you. When and how to drink, eat, sleep — and repeat. No more responsibility on your part. And it all works so seamlessly. No more oversleeping, no more lousy coffee, no more spring cleaning and time-consuming cooking. The digital Assistance (again, read French) helps you to make the most out of your day, to optimise it to the point of perfect productivity — so you can live your best life, wether you want to or not. Carpe diem and what not. Your time on earth is precious — so don’t waste it on living like an authentic human doing human things.
Rather, live like a true homo digitalis — always on the edge of the newest update. And thanks to the smart intelligence of digital watches you will get notified as soon as you need the latest bug fix. But that’s not all. You also get constant briefings about your physical well-being. Every one step on your health app is a giant leap for the data collection in your pocket. And isn’t that wonderful? To know how many steps towards perfection you made last Wednesday. Imagine not knowing that. It would probably be devastating.
And no more wondering, for you are always in touch with the latest news of the world and beyond. Never again will you miss any event that occurs on a global scale. And never again will you miss anything that your friends do. You are simply up to date at all times. This has amazing benefits: Not only are you able to talk about anything at any given time, you also don’t even have to talk to any one at any given time.
After all, you’ve already seen everything that your friends are doing right now, in the very moment, as it happens, on asocial media. You will never have to see any one of them again to ask them what has been going on in their lives. For you know it all. And if you do meet, you can cut the meeting short. Hello, Goodbye. And off you go. Just like the Beatles. Don’t waste any time on human interactions that are not digital. Who do you think you are? Human?
Besides, you actually don’t know that. After all, you could be living in a simulation of a simulacra. But once again we have to thank the digital gods of pure wisdom for opening our eyes in light of the lack of information that we experience on a daily basis. Thanks to AI and their friends, knowledge about everything is no longer limited to the physical boundaries of a casebound book within the limitations of an ancient library. Everything that has ever been known to humankind is readily available at your fingertips.
There is no need to store knowledge long term inside your brain. You can access it all whenever you want, wherever you want. No need to learn anything, anymore. If anything, studying is a huge waste of time anyway. Imagine reading stuff just for the sake of knowing! Completely unnecessary. How insane! And if you do want to learn something, then learn it not for the sake of learning, but for the sake of optimising yourself, of becoming a better version of yourself — or do you want to be left behind, with an operating system that is no longer supported by the digital systems of the world?
From now on, and thanks to the digital regime, life no longer needs to be imperfect. Great news, huh? Imagine living an imperfect life — how awful! In life, things can go wrong, actions might have unwanted consequences. There are so many surprises awaiting us in the analog world we currently live in. Most of them unwanted. After all, who wants to be surprised? The machines have known it all along: better to foresee the future than to wonder about it. For that’s too thrilling for a robot’s heart anyway.
For the digital preachers of our time are always more than baffled when they hear that I’m a traditional atheist. Their models didn’t predict my love for rebellion. I don’t believe in the primacy of the digital world, no less in its horrifying tale of perfection. I am a rebel in the sense that I believe that life, as complicated and messy as it can often get, has so much more to offer than its simulated counterpart in the multiversal space of the capitalist Internet.
However, I’m seemingly in the minority here. More and more people, of all ages, freely give up their analog life to live in the realm of the Digital. Just ask around and you will not find many souls who are withstanding the urge to share their private lives on privatised forums of public debatelessness. Of course, from a democratic viewpoint it’s your decision what you do with your life. If you want to upload it to the cloud, that’s your decision.
Where it gets problematic, however, is when you don’t think about it too much. When you just do it. Because everyone else does it. And so I dare to ask: Where have our critical minds vanished to? Have we deleted from our mental servers the ability to reason before we even had the chance to upload it to the cloud? Are we no longer able to ask the question why? And to properly argue in a room of reasons? Considering the Internet, no. Welcome to the un-enlightenment y’all.
The question therefore is: are you a believer? Do you believe in the digital message that is preached by the representatives of the digital regime? Or are you human? Devoted to live an authentic life full of surprises, wonders, choices, responsibilities, and limited knowledge of the world. And I should add pain, confusion and emotional despair to that list, too.
In other words: wouldn’t you rather live in a world that though not perfect as such is absolutely perfect for what it is — reality, unfiltered?
