‘How to Do Nothing’ makes me reminisce on Ghana’s exploitation of natural resources by external powers. Advanced technologies used in capitalist production and refining of Ghana’s natural resources contribute to all forms of colonial systems of pollution in Ghana. For example, local industries, in partnership with foreign powers, adopt technologies that produce toxic byproducts and…
Smartphones as digital teddy bears offer incredible connectivity and access to information but introduce elements that may contribute to a derealization of corporeality by altering how individuals perceive, interact with, and present their physical selves in the digital realm. The challenge is to find a balance that acknowledges the benefits of digital connectivity while preserving…
Han (2022) describes the future digital community formation as phono sapiens. Han’s use of phono sapiens demonstrates how most individuals are constantly engrossed in the digital sphere and neglect to engage with others or pay attention to what is truly going on in the site-based community. The shift from a site-based world to a digital…
Dataism posits that the universe operates as a network of data flow, wherein humans function as organisms driven by biochemical algorithms, and machines rely on electronic algorithms. Both these systems are viewed as algorithms, highlighting their fundamental similarity. According to this perspective, intuition is subjective, and the growing influence of big data could render it…
We are the product of ancient philia, oriented to a discipline because of a certain affection, held lightly or tightly. We are brought together in communities because of habitus, destined paths we cannot circumvent. I’d argue that the draw to rhetoric, the most ancient of all habitus, is a special call indeed. So how does…
I often feel like we never had a prayer in winning the so-called battle against technology, and now we are rapidly headed towards the loss of the war: as we revel in the “confession boxes” of our smartphones and the digitization of faux lives online that are so much greener than our own in the…
We have been on Han for a while now, and I may say I’m a big fan. But a thought suddenly came to my mind while reading “The Information Regime,” and it gained ground. Han speaks of technology as though it has no calculative human connection at all. I do not agree. Yes, technology is…
I was thinking about how the simultaneousness of nearness and distance has been a benefit of the development of phones and other digital tools as I read the passage where Han discusses it (p. 55). When my dad and I talk about how much we miss each other, he often says, “Thank God for phones…
Han positions stillness as a conduit for the divine—the higher order of things that can only be sought through choosing to do nothing and listening. The divine arrives at those who are able to just be without compulsion. But the information regime fosters a “destructive hyperactivity” (81) among those it dispossesses of thingness and bodies:…
I once wrote about our reliance on depictions of greatness in the wake of failure. Because we’re prone to fail–and failure being verboten, nor accounted for all that well in our social systems, if at all–human beings must bounce back from failure. Bouncing back is hard. Heroes, however, make it look easy. The ease with…