I’m Just Not Wired That Way: Self-Understanding Through Technomorphism

“I don’t have enough bandwidth for that” or “I need to recharge.” Such metaphors that draw on elements of technology to describe our human experience have become common in our everyday English language. In the face of contemporary conversations of merging with AI, I examine what such metaphors teach us about our own human condition through closer inspection of what we say and don’t say through technomorphism (also sometimes called mechanomorphism). In the end, I suggest that while these metaphors reflect different parts of ourselves in the mirror of our digital age technologies, the qualitative differences of where the metaphor breaks down are essential for us to keep in mind going into the future.