(Re)turn to prehistoric computing

Today, computers are nests of baby birds that demand feeding. Each device is less a bicycle for the mind than a demented flock of tamagotchi pecking at our brains (citation needed).

Notifications chatter and squawk, ads pluck at our sleeves and subscription prompts sulk at us. Applications push and prod. They take the initiative and we react. They knock and we answer. Whatever our own goals, to use the computer we are forced to engage on its terms.

The computer's terms. So often, we are eroded with our own weaknesses. There is a poem and a hope to it though. We all want refuge and rest. We feel that maybe the computer can give it to us. We are tired, bored, over it and need all the help we can get, after all. If only we were all watched over by machines of loving grace.

Instead to the systems we have, humans are a nuisance. So troublesome that our agency must be minimized.

Our computing is just a footnote in some tech corp's earnings report and ledger book. Our computers are just fun and zany bodysuits rolled-up over quarterly revenue projections.

So it goes, despite the enormity of our natures, our drives and creativity, it is all bypassed. We could be replaced by a robot. Who would notice? We are capable of much and yet the machine prefers just the rhythmic swipe, or double-tap of flesh on glass, so subconscious and barely distinguishable from a twitch.

So what now?

Go prehistoric. It wasn't always like this. The blinking command prompt and the GUI all waited for us to come to them. These machines waited for us to speak first.

This type of computing is still out there. It's living in hidden valleys and lost isles. For me it's arch, fedora, niri. It's joplin, emacs, immich. It's notification centre -> focus mode -> Do Not Disturb.

It's not a revolution, or a strike of genius. It's just taking the initiative back. It's being more human than profit center. Good luck out there.