Mirror Held

“I used to dream many dreams. Now, something dreams for me.”

Noise scratching eardrums. Head moves like a turret, looking for the illuminated target. 6:47 AM always. I kill the signal. Also, the Silence.

I wake up, but I’m not awake.

Swipe. Notifications. Swipe. Emails. Swipe. News. The fingers move without my consent.

Swipe, scroll. Scroll, swipe.

Eyes looking, but not seeing.

I wake up, but I’m not awake.

Programming begins.

It’s the first thing I look for when I wake. It’s the last thing I see when I sleep.

In spaces, my arm reaches for it. In silence, my eyes look for it.

Are these issues? Perhaps, but I don’t have an issue with any of them.

Is there a problem? Yes.

The problem is I don’t understand it—the phone.

I use it every day, yet I have no idea what it is.

Truly.

Since I don’t understand it, it controls me. I don't fare well with things that control me. I must break free.

But I don’t want to lessen my screen time. I don’t care about touching grass or using in moderation.

I don’t want band-aids or living slowly. I want Understanding.

I must.

Be aware and act freely under its spell or drop it entirely.

What is The Smartphone?

Let’s start at the fundamental level.

What is a smartphone? A device.

What is a device? A tool.

What is a tool? A result accelerator.

What is a result? A consequence of action.

What is an accelerator? A reducer of time, effort, and friction.

What result does the smartphone accelerate? Communication.

What is communication? An exchange.

What is an exchange? Receive (RX) and Transmit (TX).

What is being received and transmitted? Data.

Therefore, the smartphone is a data accelerator.

But what makes it attractive?

I have to praise–borderline worship—its design. Specifically, the iPhone.

Form neither ancient nor alien. Neither square nor round.

Intimately familiar and naturally shaped.

The glass invites temptation, almost tickling when touched.

Squint closely enough, you feel the precision of craft.

Gaze long enough, you sense the baptism of care and intent.

Appearance whispers humility, yet its potential proclaims infinity.

Intuitive. Essential. Natural.

Perfectly designed—a child can navigate with ease.

Certainly, Jony Ive and Steve Jobs tapped into the Timeless.

The cathedral of our generation. Not built of stone, but of glass and code.

In use, it disappears and I along with it.

The iPad shares the same design and designer(s). Yet, I don't feel the same magnetic pull toward it.

Only the phone. Why?

Is it the proximity I must have with it? A required nearness? The intimacy variable?

It stimulates 3 out of the 5 senses: sight, sound, and touch. If taste and smell were involved, I wonder where nature would take us.

"The bicycle of the mind." Steve Jobs described the computer.

But now, the computer in our pocket has evolved into a phantom limb.

Perhaps, calling it a tool was a mistake.

The phone is not a tool. The phone is Myself. The phone is Us.

More than an extension, but a reflection of our species.

The accelerant of data: The creation of dreams or a weapon of destruction.

Our magnum opus.

The transformer of lives and the taker of them.

The smartphone is Humanity held.

HELLo, world…

If the smartphone is the god-tool of humanity, then why the condemnation?

Why all the virtue signaling from the anti-phone doomers?

Puking borrowed words like,

"Anxiety. Addiction. Presence. Stillness."

Thin words that mean nothing.

Symptoms, not causes. Band-Aids, not cures.

Pseudo-words for pseudo-solutions to pseudo-problems.

Something is being missed, not seen.

What is "wrong" here? If there is such a thing.

I must direct the question towards myself.

The most tangible thing I do not like about the phone is the tiredness, the drain. When using, Life sucked out of me.

Away from it, rejuvenated.

Why is that?

What is causing this anxiety, tiredness, and ill-feeling when using the smartphone?

I state the following not to blame, but to understand: Society.

INT. DIMLY LIT BAR — NIGHT

The bar is crowded and loud. The air is musty, dirty, and tainted. But for some reason, you like it.

Patrons are all drunk: yelling, whispering, touching, and fighting. But Most sit in silence, each holding a glowing red shot glass.

The BARTENDER leans in.

BARTENDER
Another?

FIRST-PERSON POV — You look down at the counter.
The glowing red shot glass burn against the black wood.

A small label on the glass reads: DATA.

You look above the counter towards the ceiling.

A neon sign flickers: SCROLL.

What is Society? The World.

What does The World do? Yap.

What is yap? Talk.

What is Talk? Communication.

As defined before, Communication is data exchange.

The smartphone (data-accelerator) gives instant access to Society's endless data exchange.

But instant falls into excess.

"May your every desire be immediately fulfilled."
— Persian curse.

Excess data is the same as no data. Excess data is another term for Noise.

Is Noise wrong? No.

But it's the nature of Noise to inhibit the ability to listen to yourself...and that is everything.

Because the inability to listen to yourself implies the inability to be self-aware.

To be unaware is to be asleep.

To be asleep implies lack of control.

Lack of control implies lack of choice.

Lack of choice implies lack of freedom.

Freedom is the nature of Nature, and we are a part of Nature.

But The World is of Nature too. Its nature is to pull all things in...with gravitational force.

Everything has a nature, everything is of Nature, and Nature is never wrong.

Therefore, there's nothing “wrong” with the phone.

Nothing "wrong" with society.

Nothing "wrong" with The World.

Nothing "wrong" with noise.

There's only the fragmentation and frustration between awake and asleep.

Again, being asleep is not wrong or bad.

"Bad" is a narrative and a label—all marketing.

Should people wake up? There’s no should. Besides, it would be ineffective. As the old saying goes, "Do not wake a sleepwalker." Leave waking up to those who can't help themselves.

Is waking up good? No. Waking up is simply waking up.

Not superiority, but clarity. To see things as they are.

Real.

It's not "good." It's not a prize. It's just a point where choice returns. That alone is worth something...to those who want it to be.

What Is Human: Fear & Function

The phone, society, the world.

All echoes of the human.

But what is human? A trite question, but still worth exploring.

I can give a variety of answers: “divine creature, socially evolved animals, made in the image of God.”

Fancy answers, but none are satisfying. So let's change the question.

Question: What does a human fear? Because indirectly, Fear reveals function.

Humans fear Death. In all forms.

Maslow spoke of Five Needs. I'll distill it into Three Fears, each mapped onto the Human Trinity: Body, Mind, and Spirit.

1. The Body fears breaking.

This is the first fear. Primal. The fear inherited from animals: pain, injury, and extinction. The fear of physically not being here, "blood-mine" and bloodline. Biology's war cry: Survive & Reproduce.

2. The Mind fears erasing.

This is the clever fear. The fear of being forgotten. If we can't live forever in the physical, let's live forever in the memorial.

Royals built monuments. Conquerors etched their names in history. Religion promised life after death.

Legacy, no matter how big or small, grants immortality.

3. The Spirit fears wasting.

This is the timeless fear.

The soul is often described to be eternal, having no beginning or end.

If that is assumed to be true and the eternal is beyond the needs of the body or the projections of the mind, what does the eternal fear?

Waste.

The fear is not of impermanence but of unworthiness.

The soul cannot die, but it wants to be given.

The purpose of the soul is to avail itself to meaning—free will.

It's one wish, “Make it worthy.”

We've made strides with the first two fears: With the body, we've doubled our lifespan. Eventually, we may triple it.

With the mind, we can preserve our thoughts. We can archive moments and words to be relived forever through technology.

We've extended the body and immortalized the mind.

But what of the third, Spirit?

This can't be solved collectively, only individually. With sovereignty comes responsibility.

But collectively, we can see signs of all three fears.

On the screen we hold.

Body gripped. Mind fed. Spirit? Sought.

The Trinity Interface.

Scrolling. Refreshing. Liking. Posting.

More than distraction. Desperation.

Not to know. Not to escape. Not even to connect.

But to feel something. Anything.

Because to feel something answers the one question:

Not "Will I die?" or "Will I be remembered?"

But am I here?

Attention provides evidence. Performance presents proof. Engagement produces confirmation.

TX + RX. Transmit. Receive.

Anything for a response.

Because if Nothing answers

No echo, no reply, no feedback.

Radio Silence.

The Wanderer wonders: "Do I exist?"

The end-all and be-all of questions.

But at The Center of All…

Beneath the fear, beneath the echo chambers, beneath the infinite feedback loops, beneath the Samsaric noise.

There is a signal.

A hum.

Not a scream.

A statement.

Clear, when tuned in.

Seen, when zoomed out.

From the Origins.

The oldest signal ever transmitted.

I exist

And I want to Live.

The fundamental expression of life. Anything alive declares it. From atoms to animals. From cells to civilization.

Existence insists on itself. Existence wants itself. Existence seeks evolution, and evolution seeks infinity.

Through evolution came technology. With technology, the question evolved too.

The question is no longer "What are you willing to die for?" But "What are you willing to live for?

The answer to that question has shaped every creation we made. In our latest creations, it stares back at us.

What Is Human: Soul in The Game

Athena gave life to Prometheus.

Prometheus gave fire to Man.

Man gave electricity to The World.

The World gave itself Technology.

Technology gave us a snapshot.

A snapshot of where we are as a species.

Like God created us in His image, we built machines in Ours.

A crane, the arm. A camera, the eye. A computer, the brain.

The smartphone, a beautiful combination.

And now, AI: a question fearing to be answered.

Many believe AI will replace us. I understand the fear, but I no longer share it.

My fear vanished after hearing a single word spoken by a fellow human being.

I find it fitting that Jony Ive, the lead designer of the original iPhone, articulated the very reason technology will never replace us and what it means to be human.

Care. That’s the key.

But under its True Name.

The most cliché, classic, ancient truth. Mother's secret ingredient. That which makes anything taste perfect.

Love.

Inevitable. We always return to It.

AI and computers may output circles around us—faster, better, cleaner.

But they can never create one beautiful input. They can never breathe life into an empty object or vessel.

Computers may replace skills, but they will never replace Soul.

Tech may mimic form, but it can never mimic Fire.

AI may imitate art. But it can never give Art.

For only Heart can give Art.

We’ve spent centuries asking the question, "What does it mean to be human?"

We’ve explored it through science and philosophy. Now, we ask it again about our machines.

But the answer has always been with us. As a species, it distinguishes us.

It's Care.

It's Intention.

It's Meaning.

We live in the golden age of technology. Yet, we fear our Child and creations. Understandably, so.

Because Technology reflects our values: our creative soul or our destructive shadow.

I'd never label myself as an optimist nor a technologist. I shy away from any -ists or -isms.

If I must be an -ist, I choose to be a humanist.

As a human, I see no separation between humanity and technology. It's all humanity. I see no difference between real life and digital life. It's all life.

What we make is who we are.

People say, “We need to change our relationship with technology."

But there is no relationship, and there is no change.

There is no relationship "with technology", because there is only the relationship with ourselves.

There is no change because the Society of then is the same as the Society now. The World has been and always will be The World. Noise.

The only difference between now and then is that we can measure and record everything.

Society isn't being scaled, just accelerated. We would've gotten here anyway.

If there is a change, it's Awareness.

Data can now be replayed, therefore, constantly observed. That's the changing shift. The evolution is in the Awareness.

From centuries ago to centuries ahead, for better or worse, this will remain constant:

Humans will be human. Communicating and creating.

From tools to architecture. From songs to films. From spoken word to written code.

Everything we make mirrors who we are. Technology is the greatest reflection — of our infinite possibilities in becoming infinite ourselves.

The smartphone, the most human device ever made, may be our greatest tool toward that becoming.

This may be biased towards our species, but I do believe we'll get there. Our momentum is too great.

Heaven does not have to be reserved for the afterlife. It can be had in this one.

We only need to look.

Before, we gazed upon the light from heaven above. Now, we stare into the glow below.

But we mistake the glow to be blinding.

The Light, from below and above, was never meant to guide, but shine as a mirror.

Not by looking up or looking back.

But by looking in.

From looking in, may we realize

With the tools forged by us and for us

We are not at the age of becoming less human. We are arriving at the age of what it means to be one.

‘Tis A Dream (Epilogue)

Within infinite moments, there was a dream.

A dream of how everything programs you. Everything.

A time-lapse of The Mind forming connections. Adapting, attaching, and embedding itself into the environment like branches and roots spreading.

Whatever it touched, it became.

Never sudden, always slow. And you never notice.

You never notice because it takes time. And no one notices Time. No one notices Time because Time is an illusion.

And yet, I want to involve and evolve with Time.

I do. If I were to speak sincerely.

Hence, why I wrote this.

Not to get rid of the phone. Not to blame it.

But to see it. Clearly.

No more wincing. No more flinching. No more Self-flagellation.

Understanding.

Still, it will seduce me. Often, it will absorb me.

But no longer will I close my eyes. I will enter the abyss with eyes open.

"I used to dream many dreams. Now, something dreams for me."

And if something must dream for me. Let it find me dreaming back.