The rapid pace of technological change is not gender-neutral. Instead of making things fairer, it often reinforces inequality, from biased algorithms to precarious care and digital work.
Eylül Bombacı
Our minds can’t easily keep up with the ever-accelerating world. Every day, we encounter a new device: inventions that will make our lives easier, faster, or more accessible. From wheels to bicycles, bicycles to aeroplanes, and even the internet, our lives have accelerated in various ways, and “efficiency” has never ceased to be a keyword. The world has been on a “speeding up” trend for a long time. Call it the Anthropocene, call it the Industrial Revolution and the great technological miracles that followed. Of course, there have been some exceptional periods in our lives, which have been accelerated by various inventions since the early 1950s. But new things broke down the old ways, and there’s only been one way out: becoming even faster…
Following the devastation wrought by the massive wars the world witnessed, speeding up and becoming more efficient were the primary ways to restore quality of life. When technological advancements are equated with making people’s lives easier, a single image comes to mind: Devices are our servants, and we are sitting on the sidelines.
So, is this really what happens? As innovations arrive, do we simply relax and take it easy, or does it leave us with more time to focus on other things? Who wants an accelerating world? Who benefits from achieving this momentum? We’re plagued by technophobia, by the accelerating life we can’t keep up with, by the question of who needs this speed.
Don’t let the world turn around!
According to some researchers, the issue actually begins with the graphs skyrocketing since the early 1950s. This has been dubbed the “Great Acceleration.” The Great Acceleration is actually a theory proving the dramatic and simultaneous acceleration of human activity in many areas. The first recorded event was made in the mid-20th century and has continued into the 21st century. In other words, we are still in it. This acceleration begins with the Anthropocene, a phenomenon that describes humanity’s permanent changes to nature. The Anthropocene is also a unique period in which the world is rapidly depleting some of its essential resources. As you know, this is also the reason for the climate crisis and the many natural disasters it brings.
During this period, we see the rapid acceleration of many factors, including global population, per capita income (where it accumulates varies from year to year), energy consumption, international tourism, and transportation. With things becoming much easier thanks to technological advancements, accessibility is no longer an issue. As everything becomes more readily available or consumed, production and consumption cultures are also accelerating to keep pace and adapting to the “disposable” approach. Now, the desire to possess has faded into the background, while finding the joy of things easily disposed of is just as effortless. Indeed, this is from bingeable series to disposable cups.
This issue, which emerged from a research group’s study of socioeconomic trends, indicates that the world has been accelerating since the 1950s. Therefore, this isn’t entirely new. Even birth rates and stratospheric ozone levels have been following this upward trend, while these rates have also been observed to slow down recently. However, this doesn’t necessarily indicate that the world is slowing down. The increasing responsibilities of workers throughout the day are compounded by the binge-watching of television series. While budgets for long-running projects can’t easily be found, short-form projects can be quickly consumed and moved on to new ones. Especially with the endless speed of the internet and the intensity of time the world spends online, trends can rise and fall.
Productivity and some rest
In 2020, geographer Danny Dorling declared the end of the world’s acceleration trend with his book “Slowdown.” He claims that the slowdown will have a positive impact on our world, our economy, and our lives. In his book, Dorling says: “The chaotic market system must be replaced with democratic planning, the cooperation of competing states and powers, and the social hierarchy with solidarity and equality.” Dorling’s wishful thinking is certainly sweet.
The pandemic forced the entire global economy to experience an unforeseen slowdown. Some countries were forced to incur significant debt alongside this rapid economic slowdown. One such country was the United Kingdom, which provided government support to those experiencing losses across a wide range of businesses. During the pandemic, the UK was one of the highest spenders among the G7 countries based on per capita income. Then, following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine War, the UK economy began to falter due to energy shortages and the escalating energy crisis. The most important solution to this was to increase productivity.
What we call productivity, while not necessarily “working more,” appears to be a vicious cycle where more work is completed in less time. Returning to Dorling’s claims, the pandemic, the explosive rise of artificial intelligence a few years later, and its rapid impact on all sectors don’t seem to be slowing down much in and of themselves. Again, productivity, productivity everywhere…
A love of momentum
Accelerationism is a term presented by a group of thinkers as a solution to the past. Accelerationists argue that technology, particularly computer technology and capitalism, must be greatly accelerated and intensified, either because it is the best course of action for humanity or because there is no other alternative.
In the 1990s, philosopher Nick Land from the University of Warwick argued that the triumph of capitalism and the rise of technoculture were intertwined. Drawing on the work of renowned theorists such as Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, and Jean-François Lyotard, Land argued that capitalist technological advancement was transforming not only our societies but also ourselves. He believed that the self was being dissolved by the increasing speed and tempo of modern life. In other words, the individual became less important than the techno-capitalist system they were embedded in. Nick Land, a member of the university’s Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU), discussed the limits of “accelerationism” with a team, arguing that the world was becoming increasingly cyberised. Writing about the group, which disbanded after a few years, Guardian columnist Andy Beckett emphasises that their solution to any economic problem was simply acceleration and technology. The 2008 financial crisis, which the world later faced, is quite the opposite of this math.
Technology, so much technology
In his book “On Belief,” renowned philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek argues that in this phase we call “modern times,” technology has reached a point where people can no longer grasp how to cope with its rapidity. In a world now driven by automation, we’ve already moved from analogue technologies to automated ones. For a long time, we didn’t even need to understand how things work to benefit from what technology has brought us. These accessible and easy-to-use devices make our lives “easier,” and in turn, they create a consumer culture, accelerating the pace of everything. Music is an example. According to anthropologist Nick Seaver, music can now be released much more quickly and listened to at any time through online streaming platforms, leading to a surge in production and distribution. The internet’s accessibility has also resulted in overload.
Technology, on the other hand, is a series of inventions that have always been met with fear throughout their innovations. While the greatest dystopias come from technology and science fiction, all these messages actually lead to a common point: the loss of our humanity, and with it, the world we live in, as technology takes over our world. Currently, the leading force is artificial intelligence. This technology, which has been present in our lives in other forms for a long time, has created a whole new wave with the public release of productive AI platforms. Artificial intelligence has led to a step forward in accelerating global productivity, especially in creative and computer-driven fields. While its results may remain generic for now, it is still reducing the need for human labour as an alternative to consumer media. While debates and plagiarism lawsuits continue regarding the ethics of the subject, its impact on labour, and the originality of its results, the media world is also experiencing its share of the increasing pace of the world. After all, social media remains one of the fastest-growing business areas. On social media, which encompasses creative and related marketing sectors, visual and textual production is forced to keep pace with rapidly spreading trends driven by algorithms. Journalism, advertising, and other professions requiring writing and design skills are among the sectors affected by this rapid pace.
We replenish our dopamine reserves on social media platforms and artificial intelligence stations. We no longer have much patience for malfunctioning devices, and we’re not accustomed to slowing down at all. While life is full of ups and downs, we become desensitised to reacting to things in a faster-paced world. While our minds can’t adjust to the sheer volume of tasks, they seem to adapt quite well to the speed.
This article has been translated from Dadanizm Magazine. To see the original article in Turkish, click on this link.