Overclocking the Hen

I have grown up with the knowledge that chicken farms manipulated time to increase their yield.

By simulating night and day with artificial lights and darkness they were able to reduce the number of hours in a day and thereby forcing the hens to lay more eggs. 

One every "morning".

I took this to represent the smart way that technology was used to increase productivity. 

Not once did I look at this from the chicken's perspective. 

Burn the candle at both ends and it will burn twice as bright but for half as long.

Increasing the voltage will make motors go faster. 

Overclocking computers allows them to go faster. 

This comes at the cost of a hotter running temperature and shortened time to failure.

Our modern lives are filled with constant input, from an increasing array of devices that we are permanently connected to.

Through these devices, we are connected to each other, and to vast resources of information and entertainment. 

The very idea of having access to unlimited music, books, movies would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. 

Just as the overclocked computers eventually burned out, prematurely, we are yet to get the bill. 

What we need to be sure of is that we are sure when the bill is presented that we received value. 

𝓜 𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓴 

June 2021

see also