The Quesadilla Maker

& other Technologies

Something I used to do back in the day—way back in high school—when I was first trying to put myself and my writing out there, was write weekly rants. I would keep copies of my rants in the plastic sheath of my school binder and would pass them out to my friends (to no great success). I wish I still had these rants as I’m sure they were chock full of angsty goodness, but the most memorable one I can think of is my rant about a quesadilla maker.

I could not for the life of me understand the point of a quesadilla maker. As a Hispanic person, I was insulted that such a simple staple would need an entire maker just for that. What? Why? I attributed it to laziness, to this American necessity to take the work out of everything except what could make a profit. This was before my understanding of ableism, before my understanding that technologies often exist for a reason.

But do they?

Part of learning about yourself, I have found, means unlearning systems and relearning systems. Systems of being. The entire body is a system; and nested in that are the systems of your mind: the very thing that makes us human at all. Otherwise, we’re just big, lanky mammals with an aptitude for tools. Tools. Technology. Same difference.

The mind allows us to create and imagine and speak into existence the things that have allowed us to progress thus far. The mind allows us to, then, create technologies from what our wildest dreams have given us. The mind is what has created all of this. Followed by action from our bodies. Yet, our minds—our greatest treasure—are now labeled overwhelmingly as sick. Our bodies too.

We see this in the rise of diagnoses (another tool) and the rise of anti-intellectualism. The mind is both literally and figuratively, under attack. We are all Depressed, ADHD, Autistic, BPD, Narcissistic, Avoidant, Anxious, Sick. Yet, it isn’t cool to learn about these things organically. It isn’t cool to wrestle with your mind as it navigates a world not built for it; it’s a disease. Your body’s natural rhythms aren’t normal; you have insomnia. We earnestly discourage reading, utilizing language, and speaking too proper and then the people know how those tools are used get to dictate the being of us.

This isn’t a new phenomenon, nor am I the first to note the rise in technology and the rise of our sicknesses. They said the same of reading as I’m sure they said the same of hieroglyphics. I have no issue with technologies by themselves. My issue is if technologies no longer serve us, what is the point of them?

I think the crux ultimately ends up being what the “serves” in that sentence means. If serve means to make convenient, make easier, make more palatable, then I think most of our technologies are doing as they are intended regardless of the unintended consequences of their existence. However, if to serve means to enrich, to enlighten, to be better as humans, then I don’t think our technologies are quite hitting their mark.

Better means fighting for survival as a team. Better means together.

Technology is an interesting thing because so many things fall into the category that I think most people forget. Language is a technology. The Economy is a technology. Propaganda (which is just a widespread social engineering) is a technology. However, if the language I use isn’t helping other people understand me, it isn’t serving a greater purpose. If the Economy isn’t allowing people to live comfortably and with dignity, then I don’t think the tool is doing what it’s meant to do even while it’s touting just that.

And if our propaganda is only ensuring more hate spreads into the world, well, then I want a refund.

(Taxation without representation!)

What then happens is the people who do understand the tools and technology in use (of course they do; they are the ones that designed them) use the things to hoard resources because they think their limited understanding separates them from the rest of us. The reality is that shared understanding is more valuable than separate “betterment”. Their knowledge of their tools doesn’t make them better. It makes them more familiar. It doesn’t help them to be anything worth standing behind.

Because to me being better means ultimately understanding that we are a species of many talents and facets. Our survival depends on one another, and our unique gifts, and no one should get left behind (Society is only possible because of a healed femur bone. Iykyk.). Being better means understanding the long-game enough to see that our survival as a species is at risk through our technologies. It means standing firm in our human-ness and what that actually means. What good is AI going to be to me without the water it’s siphoning from our Earth? What good is the language used to describe the way in which I’m “sick” if I’m still sick and always will be in this society? How are all of us so sick?

And what are our options then?

Well, understanding that technology, like everything else, can—not only be used by—but be created by an assortment of people. We can redefine things using our languages. We can create our own economies. We can create propaganda that serves a greater purpose than the destruction of those we mistakenly deem beneath us. We can be Grounded, Multifaceted, Creative, Passionate, Ambitious, Connective, Calm, and Well.

I don’t just mean with therapy because honestly, therapy is another tool that can be used in an assortment of ways. Including continuing the subjugation that necessitates therapy in the first place. (Therapy is a great start though! Not knocking it!) The same can be said of medication which is pushed as a band-aid and a stop-gap of the torrential shit-storm we find ourselves in.

We can shift culture to hold and deem these diagnoses false. To hold these and other technologies as vestigial. There is nothing wrong with us except a lack of understanding of all the things at play and unwillingness to learn. To want to be smart (in our own individual ways). The technologies around us and the way they are utilized are causing their definitions to be skewed, distorted into anything that fits in the modern world of human-computers and profit-making-machines. As we know, there is nothing to be proud of for being well-adjusted to technologies and societies that make most of us unwell.

Enough people needed a quesadilla maker that one was created. So what technology do we actually need to feel better? What can we change and redefine in our minds?

What can we create?