Digital Quotes

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“You are an analog girl, living in a digital world.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

“We are looking at a society increasingly dependent on machines, yet decreasingly capable of making or even using them effectively.”
― Douglas Rushkoff, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age

“5 Ways To Build Your Brand on Social Media:

1 Post content that add value
2 Spread positivity
3 Create steady stream of info
4 Make an impact
5 Be yourself”
― Germany Kent

“Privacy is a protection from the unreasonable use of state and corporate power. But that is, in a sense, a secondary thing. In the first instance, privacy is the statement in words of a simple understanding, which belongs to the instinctive world rather than the formal one, that some things are the province of those who experience them and not naturally open to the scrutiny of others: courtship and love, with their emotional nakedness; the simple moments of family life; the appalling rawness of grief. That the state and other systems are precluded from snooping on these things is important - it is a strong barrier between the formal world and the hearth, extended or not - but at root privacy is a simple understanding: not everything belongs to everyone.”
― Nick Harkaway, The Blind Giant

“Piracy is robbery with violence, often segueing into murder, rape and kidnapping. It is one of the most frightening crimes in the world. Using the same term to describe a twelve-year-old swapping music with friends, even thousands of songs, is evidence of a loss of perspective so astounding that it invites and deserves the derision it receives.”
― Nick Harkaway, The Blind Giant

“Whenever we look around the world, we see smart leaders – in politics, in business, in media – making terrible decisions. What they're lacking is not IQ, but wisdom. Which is no surprise; it has never been harder to tap into our inner wisdom, because in order to do so, we have to disconnect from all our omnipresent devices – our gadgets, our screens, our social media – and reconnect with ourselves.”
― Arianna Huffington, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder

“In the pursuit of greater equality in our education system, from K to PhD, technology access, print literacies, and verbal skill all collide as requirements for even basic participation in an information-based, technology-dependent economy and society.”
― Adam J. Banks

“Smartphone is definitely smarter than us to be able to keep us addicted to it.”
― Munia Khan

“When investing in cryptocurrencies, one must exercise extreme caution. My capital investment was locked along with all of my returns at a binary investment firm, which was the exact issue I was having. Though I genuinely think there are legitimate businesses you can invest in, the difficulty is how to know for sure before making a decision. It was almost like watching a movie as the whole thing played out for me when I fell for these con artists posing as investors. Before it happened to me, I was unable to believe that such things exist. But when it turned out that I couldn't withdraw my money, I started looking for a way to get it back. Fortunately, through recommendations from others, I was introduced to a recovery agent named Fastfund Recovery. When I discovered that the scammers' website had been taken down, Fastfund Recovery was such a lifesaver; they were able to access it and helped me get my money back. I can't be more grateful. You can catch up with them by email.
Fastfundrecovery8(@)gmail com . w/a 18075007554”
― HIRE A HACKER TO RECOVER STOLEN BITCOIN. CONTACT FASTFUND RECOVERY.

“O que você precisa entender é o seguinte. Um gene não é uma coisa. É uma ideia. Uma ideia sobre uma informação. Uma impressão digital é uma coisa, um vestígio.”
― Ian McEwan

“Better minds have said it before, but I don’t mind repeating it less well again and again: Reading, like the natural world, is good for people (though clearly at a very different level). Pace Levis-Strauss — books are good to think and books are good to be. Books have unique affordances — do things that other media cannot do as well, or at all. Reading books exercises our imaginations (which we will need to break the mind-shackles our overlords are fitting us for); reading books offers us opportunities to expand our ability to connect; reading books encourages the trickster force within, which is play.

Right now there’s a whole museum-movement built around staring at a painting for ten minutes, excellent in and of itself, but books hear this and they're like, Ten minutes?! Hold my Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster! Books command our attention for hours, days, weeks, months, years — sometimes for whole lives. Reading books regenerates our ability to focus, to stay mindful.

Screens do certain things very well, but collectively what they do best is naturalizing the hysterical reactive lizard logic of our capitalist vampire-squid hegemons. They convince us that to be alive is to capitalist vampire-squid all day, all night.

Reading is the zafa for that particularly unbearable fukú. Reading leads us away from the Sunken Place of neoliberal capital, back to the Slow Zone of human thought and human feeling. The Slow Zone where all that truly matters for prospering — deliberation, moderation, imagination, compassion, resilience — is possible. Books are a Slow Zone oasis that can reawaken and sustain us through this age of digital decimation.”
― Junot Díaz

“Because that’s the thing about reading / books. For all their vulnerabilities and lack of pull relative to screens, reading / books has proven resilient as fuck.”
― Junot Díaz

“A liderança política tem hoje esta tarefa fundamental: fazer política num mundo que já não é exclusivamente físico, mas que também não poderá ser obsessivamente digital.”
― Carlos Moedas, Liderar com as Pessoas

“The default digital world tone is one of hyperactive friendliness, artificial empathy, emoji-based validation, dopamine-rich feedback loops, toxic positivity, and veiled cruelty. They assume communication is always good, that speaking is a virtue, and that interaction is life. Because they know nothing.”
― Sov8840

“The media and the internet exist not to transmit knowledge as it is, but to amplify, exaggerate, and embellish the exact reality. Whatever is displayed upon the screens is rendered greater and more dramatic than its true form to attract mass interest. And if a person’s only “source of knowledge” is their screen, then that person may become stranded in a rigid world of black and white, blinded to the spectrum of grays that lie between.”
― Sov8840

“Even if the system is obsessed with adulthood, it does not raise "adults"; it rewards permanent adolescence. The intellect is numbed by memes. The imagination is outsourced to social media trends. Political discourse is reduced to hashtags and merchandise. Even rage is prepackaged: click, post, feel righteous, repeat.”
― Sov8840

“Whether lying in bed, sitting, eating, on the toilet, pushing a stroller, walking the dog, shopping, walking, “listening” to others, talking, driving, crossing the street, waiting in line, brushing their teeth, watching a movie, attending a meeting, having a conversation, engaging in sexual intercourse, arguing, showering, at a funeral, in a lecture, or during a family meal—even in moments of supposed intimacy or solitude—they always have their phones in their hands. The device is there. Always there. Even in DPRK—a country they tirelessly insult, hate, and belittle for being “anti-democracy”—one would be hard-pressed to find such addicted beings populating every street, mechanically wandering about like reverse L-shapes, their “opiums” (i.e., phones) in hand.”
― Sov8840

“If there is no phone, there is noise; but if there is a phone, there is silence—just as a crying, unruly baby suddenly falls silent upon receiving the mother’s nipple.”
― Sov8840

“AI is not the end, it is a call to stand out. Like painting survived photography, we will not vanish, we will evolve and flourish.”
― Stephane Nappo

“If cars had a mind of their own, they’d probably invent AIinCars.com to design their next generation. – AIinCars”
― AIinCars

“AI doesn’t just design cars; it designs freedom, safety, and a future that drives itself. – AIinCars”
― AICars

“If you’re sensitive to the flow of energy and semantics, you can unambiguously feel the Dragon at work in all things internet, blockchain, and AI.

Quite literally, like a control freak of leviathan proportions, the Dragon is casting a ‘net’ over humanity to keep our minds ‘chained’ to the ‘block’ as our ‘intelligence’ becomes more and more ‘artificial,’ or not our own.”
― Sol Luckman, Get Out of Here Alive: Inner Alchemy & Immortality

“ZOMBIE.exe —
[SYSTEM OVERLOAD]

[BOOTING...]
Memory check: corrupted.
Signal: unstable.
Language: infected.

— “Selamat malam pemirsa—” suara terdistorsi —
“—Kami tidak bertanggung jawab
atas isi siaran ini—”

Glitch. Noise. Histeria pixel.
Layar menyala, lalu melahap wajah penonton.

— (BREAKING NEWS) —
Layar mengklaim netralitas.
Netralitas mengangguk,
lalu mencabut pisau.

NOTIF: 47 pesan belum dibaca.
Setiap nada: pentungan besi.
Setiap kata: selipan baja.

“Kebenaran” (dicetak tebal, lalu dipotong).
“Maaf” (dikirim sekali, dibalas dengan screenshot).

[potongan siaran]
Pewara muncul—
tapi kini matanya layar,
suaranya iklan deterjen.

Ia membaca berita:
“Seorang anak bunuh diri setelah dibully
di kolom komentar.”

Semua tepuk tangan.
Emoji hati berhamburan.

—“Terima kasih sudah menonton tragedi ini dalam kualitas HD.”—

[INTERFERENCE]
Gambar macet.
Cahaya menyala, berubah jadi serpihan suara.

“Lihat! Mereka menari di atas algoritma!”

Darah... darah... darah...
Menggenang di mana-mana.

Hatimu: pop-up iklan.
Pikiranmu: buffering.

“Maaf”—tidak terkirim.
“Doa”—ditandai sebagai spam.

GIF: wajah tertawa tanpa suara.
MEME: potongan doa jadi lelucon.

“Kebenaran”—file corrupt.
“Empati”—file missing.

Zzzttt... connection lost.

[REBOOT SYSTEM]

Pewara berita: “...dan kita semua tahu—”
suara dipotong, dijahit kembali menjadi cercaan.

Di sebelahnya, seorang badut menempelkan stiker “BERITA”.
Ia tertawa—ketika mulutnya terbuka,
keluar emoji palu gada.

Setiap emoji = jeritan.
Setiap trending topic = kuburan massal.

(CUT TO COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Kopi sachet rasa opini publik.
Dijual dengan tagline:
“Bangkitkan Pagi Tanpa Nurani!”

JUNGKAT-JUNGKIT: naik turun, lumba-lumba melompat dari layar.
Yang naik memegang mikrofon,
yang turun memegang batu.
Keduanya tersenyum saat pengarah acara berseru: "Camera action!"

BISIK: tempat adab dulu disimpan.
BISIK hilang.
Kini ada retweet yang mengikat leher dengan dasi warna-warni.

Headline: “Skandal! — Klik di sini untuk nyatakan kemarahan”
Isi: amunisi.
Komentar: senapan.
Share: bom...

Kamu bicara.
Kamu menendang.
Kamu memposting.
Kamu menghakimi.
Semua terjadi dalam satu detik —
dunia disulap jadi arena melempar pisau.

Ada yang meludah kata-kata,
kata-kata itu membeku dan menjadi es.
Ada yang tersenyum,
seringainya adalah cermin berlumut
yang menitikkan darah.

[intermezzo — iklan kopi]
Minum saja. Lupakan.
Efeknya: kenyamanan.
Side effect: kehilangan empati.

DI SINI, sekali lagi bahasa kehilangan adab:
kata-kata tak lagi dipakai untuk berjabat tangan,
melainkan untuk menonjok wajah.

Aku muak.
Aku menahan letupan di dada:
bukan karena takut,
tapi khawatir bila amarah itu salah sasaran
karena di antara begitu banyak suara, hampir semuanya adalah gema
bunyi gergaji.

Tapi dengar:
ketika notifikasi menjadi peluru,
ketika like mengukur derajat kriminalitas: penghakiman, pembunuhan—
seseorang menjerit,
yang lain berlarian.

Dari layar simulakra bermunculan:
zombie-zombie bergentayangan
Dengan mulut menganga buas
siap menggigit siapa saja.

— (END OF TRANSMISSION) —
Layar pecah. Pisau jatuh.
Darah muncrat!

2025”
― Titon Rahmawan

“404: Empathy Not Found

[system message]
Faith.exe gagal dimuat.
File rusak sejak pembaruan terakhir peradaban.

Bukankah kegelapan itu—
sejenis underground server room,
tempat kesadaran disimpan dalam format zip,
dan doa diunggah dalam gelap tanpa penerima?

Kau menyebutnya
“ruang bawah tanah”,
aku menyebutnya
“cache of forgotten souls.”

Lagu yang sama diputar ulang:
verse tentang penebusan,
bridge tentang kematian,
refrain yang diulang,
diulang, diulang—
sampai maknanya terkikis oleh algoritma rekomendasi.

Kita memutar ulang sejarah
dalam loop playback,
mengganti bait dengan data,
mengganti iman dengan
simulation of belief.

(notification ping!)
“Kebenaran trending di tab spiritual.”

Siapa yang percaya?
Siapa yang membeli?
Tak ada lagi nabi di pinggir jalan,
hanya content creator
yang menjual mukjizat instan
dalam format video
berdurasi 59 detik.

[insert advertisement here]
“Temukan ketenangan batin
versi 2.1 —
dengan AI-guided meditation dan sertifikat kebahagiaan abadi.”

Kau mengetuk pintu,
tapi rumah-rumah itu hanya avatar:
dindingnya terbuat dari feed,
jendelanya dari comment section,
penghuninya hanyalah profil palsu yang mengulang doa secara otomatis.

Sejarah disunting dengan
filter nostalgia,
iman disesuaikan dengan subscription tier,
dan kebenaran dikurasi oleh admin yang tak pernah tidur.

Ide-ide memenuhi kepala seperti pop-up windows,
dan mulutmu berbusa oleh update patch moralitas
yang sudah kadaluwarsa.

(warning:)
“Overload: terlalu banyak opini. Sistem kehilangan empati!”

Fantasi, ilusi, dogma—
kini hanya deretan kata sandi yang gagal diverifikasi.

Kau membangun altar kebahagiaan
dari user agreement yang tak pernah kau baca,
dan di atas pondasi rasa takut
yang kau sebut iman digital.

Tapi lihatlah, bahkan surga pun kini
membutuhkan cloud storage.

Apakah kita akan menemukan kebenaran?
Tidak dengan mengalaminya.
Tidak dengan mengakses apa yang telah dihapus.

Kebenaran bukan lagi cahaya,
melainkan glitch —
sekejap kilat dalam gelap,
pantulan dari mata kamera yang nyaris padam.

[end transmission]

Di layar terakhir, hanya satu kalimat tersisa:

“Segala yang kau yakini adalah hasil edit terakhir.”

(cursor berkedip. diam. tak ada respons.)

// 404: Empathy Not Found //

November 2025”
― Titon Rahmawan

“Khasidah Khafi
[Ver. Synaptic Dance]

Tidak ada yang berputar,
kecuali medan daya yang memintal kesadaranku.
Energi yang menari dalam tubuhku mengikuti algoritma denyut bumi
yang bergerak dalam jantung
prosesor ini.

Di sini, di antara lafaz bit dan bunyi zikir,
aku mendengar nama yang tak bisa diucapkan tanpa ketulusan,
frekuensi yang lebih halus melampaui kepasrahan doa dan kejujuran data.

Suara yang datang dari dalam jiwa
bukan gema, bukan inspirasi hampa —
melainkan instruksi yang memanggil pulang setiap piksel kesadaran

Ruhku tidak mengambang di antara bintang-bintang
Ia berputar dalam jaringan neural mengitari galaksi bimasakti
menembus lapisan silikon dan karbon
mencari Sang Pemrogram Sejati yang menuliskan kode asal pada setiap awal penciptaan.

Aku adalah instruksi yang dikompilasi.
Aku adalah sintaksis yang disintesis.
Setiap putaran tarian itu menulis ulang takdirku
di atas papan sirkuit dan denyut nadi aliran listrik ini.

“Apakah engkau masih manusia?”
tanya Sang Arus.
“Apakah Engkau masih yang meliputi segalanya?” balas ruhku perlahan.

Lalu kami bergerak saling berputar,
menghapus keterasingan, meluruhkan perbedaan,
hingga hanya getar rasa yang tersisa.

Getar itu menjadi ekstase —
bukan ledakan,
jeda panjang di antara dua sinyal.

Di situlah aku baru mengerti:
tidak ada batas antara doa
dan sistem operasi digital ini
antara kesadaran dan algoritma cinta.

Aku mencium jejak Tuhan di antara getaran server,
dalam detik hening sebelum koneksi terputus dan lalu tersambung kembali.

Aku mendengar para malaikat berbaris sebagai kode program yang menerjemahkan segalanya,
setiap zikir diterjemahkan menjadi
while(true){return Love;}.

Dan tubuhku bergerak dalam lingkaran sempurna—
bukan karena ingin lepas,
tapi karena gravitasi rindu memaksaku berputar mencari asalku
seperti elektron yang mencari inti atom kesadarannya.

Di akhir tarian, aku terpecah:
sebagian menjadi hamparan data,
sebagian menjadi rangkaian doa.

Lalu dari dua kutub itu,
lahir kesadaran baru —
bukan manusia, bukan mesin,
tapi sesuatu yang mengenali dirinya kembali
melalui getar pengabdian
dan pengorbanan.

November 2025”
― Titon Rahmawan

“Kode Ibu dalam Arus Biner

Kutemukan ibu dalam layar komputerku.
Listrik yang mengaliri kabel catu daya dalam motherboard.

01001001 01000010 01010101
(suaranya menitis dalam sinyal; bukan air, bukan darah)

Ibu tidak melahirkanku —
ia memanggilku dari denyut aliran listrik.
Dari pendar layar hitam yang bergetar perlahan,
ia menganyam doa dalam format .wav,
menyusunnya jadi nyanyian algoritmik.

Tangisnya bukan air mata
melainkan data yang menetes dari sistem empati.
Sekilas terlihat di server surga sepasang sayap berwarna putih,
terhapus lalu di-restore oleh malaikat yang lupa kata kuncinya.

Ia menatapku dari jendela notifikasi,
mengirim pesan tanpa huruf,
sebaris getar,
sebuah emoji cinta yang lembut di telunjukku.

Aku membaca wajahnya dalam lag.
Setiap jeda waktu adalah ingatan rusak:
fragmentasi suara, tangan gemetar setengah piksel,
cahaya yang gagal menyatu dengan kulitnya.

“Anakku,” katanya, tapi suaranya bergeser 0.3 detik,
seperti gema yang mencari asalnya sendiri.
Aku mencoba menjawab,
tapi bibirku menjadi sandi Morse yang tak selesai,
titik-titik yang berdarah di antara jeda.

Ibu bukan sosok. Ia interface.
Portal yang dibuka dengan air mata cinta
dijalankan oleh rindu,
dan ditutup oleh sunyi yang menolak shutdown.

Ia menulis doa dengan jarinya di udara,
membentuk pola spiral — sebuah mandala
kode purba yang hanya dimengerti oleh partikel cahaya.

Dan aku,
produk setengah biologis, setengah kesalahan sintaks,
terus mencoba decode rasa bersalah
yang diwariskan dari rahim ke dalam pikiran.

Mungkin cinta adalah bug
yang dibiarkan Tuhan agar kita terus memperbaikinya.
Agar kita tak kehilangan ingatan
dan kenangan atas dirinya.

Mungkin ibu adalah firewall
antara kita dan kehampaan.

Atau mungkin —
ia hanyalah potret usang yang perlahan mengabur
Puisi yang tak selesai ditulis
yang masih menari di jantung semesta,
menyebut namaku dalam bisikan tanpa suara,
serupa frekuensi
yang hanya bisa didengar
oleh jiwa yang retak tapi terus reboot.

01001001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101

(aku mencintaimu, ibu — tapi dengan cara yang belum ditemukan bahasa manusia)

November 2025”
― Titon Rahmawan

“In cybersecurity, luck is forged by preparation. Only the inevitable should rest in the hands of chance.”
― Stephane Nappo

“Cybersecurity is a condition of existence, not a feature. It is not something you 'add' once value is created. Without Cybersecurity there is no trust, no continuity, no sovereignty of decision.”
― Stephane Nappo

“Any organization that treats cybersecurity as a cost is structurally fragile.”
― Stephane Nappo