the human hard drive
a metaphor to learn and unlearn everything you know
Welcome to this world, human. Enjoy OS Beta 0.1.
Specs: 1 KB hard drive storage, limited body functionality.
Primary directive: Survive.You enter this world as a tiny storage unit, holding only the essentials. Your hard drive contains just enough to recognize your parents, communicate basic needs, and survive. It's simple, but it's all you need when someone else is constantly caring for you. Your 1 KB of storage is precious, storing only the most critical information: who mom and dad are, and when you need to eat or sleep or poop. Your initial data storage only fits a tiny bit of information and the processor is painfully slow.
Upgrade complete. Welcome to Toddler OS 1.0.
New specs: 1 MB hard drive storage, improved motor skills, basic language processing.
New feature unlocked: Curiosity.Being a toddler has its perks, with increased storage and functionality. You can somewhat speak now, you know how to eat, your body is mobile, and you are constantly learning things… but information still comes from a single source: your guardians. They choose what to write onto your hard drive. The language you speak, the food you eat, the customs you follow - all are downloads from your primary caregivers. There are little-to-no outside sources of information, which is great because it allows your mind to explore the magic of chewing on car keys, picking noses, inventing words and shitting on schedule. But soon, that’ll all change…
System update... Childhood 9.4.0 installed.
Hardware upgrade: 10 GB storage, enhanced cognitive functions.
New features: Basic problem-solving, creative expression.
Warning: Increased vulnerability to external influences detected.Welcome to the era of volatility. Your storage is larger but constantly in flux. You're discarding crawling to make room for running, forgetting diapers to accommodate potty training. Most importantly, you're gaining control over your own data input. You're going to school now, making friends, maybe starting to play sports or instruments, maybe even getting to travel! This is a crucial time in your life. That 10 GB of space has never been more volatile. While you have more storage, you're inherently throwing out old information and replacing it with new to keep only what's necessary.
This new update allows for a level of autonomy and personal decision-making that is unfamiliar but very empowering. You choose what is written and what's discarded. And more importantly, you begin to see and take note of outside sources that influence your storage. Maybe your cousin plays with Barbies, and you feel a gravitation towards dolls. Maybe your dad brings back model racecars from work, opening up a whole new folder within your storage system. Each new interaction and experience opens up a new folder in your hard drive and forces you to make room for the things you admire.
Initiating Teenage Protocol: v16.8.0
Massive hardware upgrade: 1 TB
New features unlocked: Advanced reasoning, identity customization, hormonal chaos.
Caution: Emotional subroutines may cause system instability.Your hard drive isn't just storing anymore - it's processing. All those seemingly random bits of data start influencing your decisions and shaping your worldview. From fashion choices to vacation preferences, your stored information becomes the database for your life choices. You can have proper intellectual conversations (or argumentative bitch-fights), debate over multiple love interests, express opinions on the dumbest of things, multi-task to some level of proficiency, and maybe even drive.
As a teenager, the environment that surrounded you for the past xx years has influenced the type of information you possess and how/when/where you apply that information. Everything from the cost of your shoes, to your family’s religion, to the affluence of your neighbors has subliminally influenced the way you view and experience the world. What topics do you choose for your next English paper? Where do you want to go for vacation? Why do you like girls with brown hair and not boys with blonde hair?
Your human hard drive, in its teenage years, begins to awaken as a self-supported, sentient being that moves at the speed of light. You are capable of things beyond your past, as the cumulative experiences that have so far defined you, now redefine your output… how fascinating.
Adulthood v01.0.25 launched.
Storage: 2 PB - Maximum capacity reached.
Recommendation: Regular maintenance and updates strongly advised.
Warning: Outdated files may impair system performance.You've reached peak storage capacity; 2 PB (Petabytes) - as per the number that scientists say your brain’s storage capacity might actually be. At this stage of your life, the mind is fully developed. Your hard drive is a complex network of experiences, heartbreaks, achievements, and failures. You've had your heart broken, traveled overseas, earned a bit of money, lost loved ones, achieved personal success and/or experienced failure. And throughout all this, you've taken in ridiculous amounts of information while also expelling tons more.
But as we all know, thanks to Voltaire and also Uncle Ben, with great power comes great responsibility. And because the human hard drive doesn’t come with a user manual, you’re the developer, the beta tester, and the end-user all rolled into one. That means the processing power and decoding algorithms are completely up to you. Cultures, trends, societies, traditions and technologies are rapidly evolving at a rate that renders stored information as stale and outdated within a short period of time.
In 1924, Freud asserted that biology was the key determinant of gender identity but here we are 100 years later, vastly confused, displaced, and misconstrued from that construct. Is there even a moral median for such a concept? What about concepts like sexual freedom? What about social freedoms? Human rights? Abortion rights? Financial equity? What about simpler concepts like tattoos? Jewelry? Dietary choices? There is no concept of universal morality when you think about the chaotic, diverse, partisan and subjective nature of the information stored on our personal hard drives.
Over the course of our lives, we accumulate vast amounts of information, yet we're rarely taught how to process and decode it effectively. Cultures, trends, societies, traditions, and technologies evolve at a dizzying pace, often rendering our stored information stale and outdated within a short period. It's crucial to recognize that your human hard drive isn't just a static storage unit – it's a dynamic, ever-evolving system that requires constant maintenance and updates.
Once you reach your human capacity of storage, you’ll need to keep clearing your mental cache and discard old, outdated information. Much like the good ole Floppy disks and Walkmans, you might also rot in a tech junkyard of boomer ideologies. For a lot of people, those old trinkets and toys were a source of nostalgia! We are a species of hoarders! We love to reminisce and keep things around for the sake of comfort and sanity. But those are not excuses for keeping old, outdated ideals, beliefs, and prerogatives.
What better way to illustrate this concept than with a listicle:
If you grew up in a traditionally religious household that believed there is only one god and you must go to a prayer service every Sunday or else you’ll go to hell… clear your cache. There might be other gods. Prayer service might be on Tuesdays. Hell might not exist. Religion might be a fallacy. The possibilities are endless, but the ultimate truth is up for interpretation.
If you grew up with a mom doing all the chores, cooking and cleaning in the house… clear your cache. Think about who set these standards. Are they valid? Don’t carry silly gender normative ideals into another generation.
If you grew up believing that you must not cry even if your dog dies, you get your period, you crash your car, or your wife yells at you… clear your cache. Emotions were never meant to be caged. Neither were they meant to be projected; but shit happens. Talk about it, sing about it - rewrite the way you’ve known to control your emotional signals.
If nobody ever taught you how to cook a proper meal and so you end up eating scrambled eggs, cereal and toast for the rest of your life… clear your cache. Take it upon yourself to seek new information and create storage space for a new interest that may have never existed.
If your job is paying you well but you’re an anxious wreck at the end of everyday and feel like you see no happiness at the end of your weeks… clear your cache. Everyone has different thresholds for endurance, tolerance and pain. Know yours, and be comfortable with what you can handle. Don’t let someone else’s threshold be a standard for yourself.
If your parents told you to wear a certain type of clothing or certain styles because they accentuate your figure or fit you into a visual mold… clear your cache. Dress however the fuck you want, and be content in your own skin. Define yourself by the way you present yourself, and don’t let that definition come from anywhere else but within.
If the company that surrounds you doesn’t make you feel wanted, loved, cared for, and supported… clear your cache. You are in complete control of your environment; design it to near-perfection.
Ongoing maintenance required.
Recommended actions:
1. Regular software updates
2. Firewall checks against misinformation
3. Expansion of empathy protocols
4. Continuous learning subroutines
You are your own system administrator - keep your hard drive optimized.As the administrator of your own complex system, it's your responsibility to regularly refresh your storage. This means challenging old beliefs, seeking out new perspectives, and being willing to overwrite outdated information. It means granting your fellow humanoids read/write permissions on your human hard drive, allowing them to access the depths of your data while being to add a bit of theirs. It means creating space for new experiences, ideas, and connections.
Your hard drive should be a living, breathing entity - not a dusty archive of unchanging data. Choose how to digest new information and which folders to store it in. Don’t be afraid to save over old files and update file names. Ensure that the sweetest bits are password-protected, while the old stuff is tossed out. But most importantly, leave space for what’s to come.
quote unquote
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Carl Sagan
"The creative adult is the child who survived." - Ursula K. Le Guin
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." - Alvin Toffler
"The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past." - Marie Kondo
This essay is a remastered version of one that I wrote in 2022. I found the process of revision so fruitful, using my current frame of thought and tone of voice - it’s almost as if I cleared my cache to make room for updated concepts. It’s an interesting thing, to be able to iterate on your own work and breathe more life into something that was once a completed piece.
I’d love to extend an invite into my human hard drive, and hear more about the gigabytes of weird and creative data within yours! Thank you for taking the time to read and share your time with me. Please also consider liking, sharing, and posting an analog version of this piece at your local YMCA to feed my internal algorithm.
My last post, in case you missed it:
Loved the visualizations. Added a great atmosphere to the piece.
This was a delight to read and a beautiful reminder that we can always nurture our childlike curiosity and sense of wonder no matter our age. Thanks for sharing such a thoughtful and engaging piece! :)