AI Is the New Electricity — and That’s the Problem

I think artificial intelligence is comparable to the introduction of electricity.

Once electricity became universal infrastructure, nobody questioned it. You didn’t argue whether homes should have power. You didn’t debate whether lights were good or bad. Electricity simply was. Turning it off became unthinkable.

AI is following the same path.

Once everyone has access to it, no one wants to unplug.

But here’s the difference most people are missing: electricity extended physical capability. AI and screens extend — and quietly replace — mental capability. That distinction matters more than we’re willing to admit.

Electricity didn’t colonise the human mind.
AI does.

And the costs are already visible.

---

The Hidden Damage We’re Pretending Not to See

We’re now surrounded by symptoms that are treated as individual problems rather than environmental effects:

• Memory loss
• Loss of strategic and intentional thinking
• Shrinking imagination
• Declining hand–eye coordination
• Erosion of social skills
• Chronic insomnia
• Anxiety and depression
• Loss of focus and concentration
• Reduced capacity to learn deeply
• Reduced capacity to earn a living independently

These are not rare edge cases. They are becoming the baseline.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: none of this is mysterious. None of it is surprising. None of it is a personal failure.

These are predictable outcomes of living inside screens for most waking hours.

Yet instead of addressing the cause, we keep inventing treatments that assume the cause will remain untouched.

---

This Is Not a Medical or Educational Problem

This is where most experts go wrong.

We keep trying to solve screen-induced damage with:

• Education
• Training
• Productivity systems
• Medication
• Talk therapies

But all of these assume the very faculties that screens are degrading.

Education assumes attention.
Training assumes memory.
Productivity systems assume focus.
Medication treats symptoms, not environments.
Talk therapy doesn’t restore nervous systems.

Trying to fix screen exhaustion with more structured screen use is like treating sleep deprivation with caffeine and motivational posters.

The system itself is the illness.

---

Why “Just Unplug” Sounds Radical — But Isn’t

Suggesting that people unplug for long periods sounds extreme only because the baseline has become absurd.

Let’s be honest about what’s now considered normal:

• 8–10 hours of screen exposure per day
• Constant partial attention
• Fragmented thought
• Continuous stimulation
• Shallow engagement mistaken for connection

In any other era, this would be recognised as mass cognitive exhaustion.

Unplugging for:

• 23 hours a day
• A week
• A month

is not deprivation.

It’s neurological rehabilitation.

People who step away from screens don’t “escape reality.” They return to it. That’s why so many describe the experience as a mental reset, a clearing, or even an awakening — not because something mystical happened, but because baseline human functioning resumed.

---

Why This Solution Isn’t Being Adopted

Here’s the cynical part — but it’s accurate.

This solution works.

That’s precisely why it won’t be promoted at scale.

Because:

• Attention fuels platforms
• Platforms fuel advertising
• Advertising fuels economies
• Calm, focused people buy less and comply less

A population that sleeps well, thinks strategically, imagines freely, and socialises face to face is inconvenient to systems built on stimulation and surveillance.

So instead, we’re told to:

• Adapt
• Upskill
• Optimise
• Medicate
• Cope

Never:

• Turn it off

The idea of limits threatens business models, not human wellbeing.

---

The Only Sustainable Position: Voluntary Limits

This isn’t about smashing technology or retreating into nostalgia.

It’s about adult use of tools.

The only position that works long-term is intentional limitation:

• 2–3 hours of screen use per day
• Screens used for specific tasks, not ambient living
• Long off-grid intervals
• Intentional re-entry, not compulsive scrolling

This is exactly how electricity is used wisely:

• In specific rooms
• For specific purposes
• With darkness and silence preserved

AI needs the same treatment — or it consumes the house.

A tool you can’t switch off is no longer a tool. It’s an environment. And environments shape behaviour whether you consent or not.

---

Rapid Change Amplifies the Wrong Voices

We’re living through rapid technological change, and historically, that’s always dangerous.

Not because of technology itself — but because of who gets amplified during upheaval.

In stable times, wisdom rises slowly.
In unstable times, confidence beats competence.

Algorithms reward certainty, outrage, and simplicity. Wisdom hesitates. Intelligence qualifies. Caution pauses.

The result is predictable: loud fools dominate, while the thoughtful are drowned out.

This isn’t a failure of intelligence. It’s a structural flaw in attention economies.

The megaphone doesn’t distinguish between insight and noise.

---

Why Face-to-Face Still Matters

After withdrawing from asymmetrical relationships — ghosting those who ghost, not chasing those who don’t call — something important becomes visible.

That withdrawal isn’t isolation. It’s boundary restoration.

And the next logical step isn’t more online engagement.

It’s local, face-to-face reconnection.

Neighbourhood conversations.
Brief exchanges.
Recognition without performance.

Face-to-face communication does something screens cannot:

• It stabilises attention
• It moderates emotion
• It restores empathy
• It grounds reality

Humans regulate humans. Algorithms fragment them.

Civilisations don’t collapse from lack of information. They collapse from loss of trust and shared reality. That is rebuilt one small interaction at a time.

---

The Forgotten Skill: Knowing How to Switch Off

With every new technology, the first skill that should be taught is how to turn it off.

But we never teach that.

We teach:

• How to use it
• How to optimise it
• How to monetise it

We don’t teach:

• When enough is enough
• What it replaces
• What it costs

That omission isn’t accidental. It’s profitable.

But the consequences are now unavoidable.

---

The Quiet Strategy for Dangerous Times

History shows this pattern clearly:

• Loud, reckless voices dominate early
• Systems overcorrect later
• The calm, competent survivors inherit the recovery

The wise rarely win the moment. They win the aftermath — if they preserve their clarity.

That requires restraint.

But choosing:

• Low noise
• Real contact
• Clear limits
• Intentional silence

This isn’t withdrawal. It’s positioning.

---

Final Thought

This isn’t anti-technology.

It’s pro-human.

AI, like electricity, is here to stay. But unlike electricity, it reaches into memory, attention, imagination, and identity.

If we don’t learn how to switch it off, it won’t just power our lives — it will replace them.

The solution isn’t smarter tech.

It’s less of it.

And the courage to say so quietly, clearly, and without apology.

Related Articles

• Square Eye Syndrome: How a 30-Day Digital Detox Gave Me My Mind Back
• From Digital Serf to Landholder: An Australian’s Guide to Escaping Techno-Feudalism