Technomagic Arkana
This blog is named Technomagic Arkana, and I call myself a technomancer. This is a weird sci-fi-fantasy term that has a pretty nebulous definition and a public perception somewhere between proclaiming yourself wizard and openly discussing your LARP escapades on your main social-media. Considering my main online presence involves a 3D mostly-anime avatar, that’s probably an appropriate level of cringe for a passer-by, but my use of the word technomancer is about more than my persona and more than just aesthetics.
The word technomancy is too niche for the likes of Dictionary.com, but Wiktionary defines it as:
Noun
technomancyhttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/technomancy
- A category of magical abilities that either affect technology, or to magical powers that are gained through the use of technology
- The combination of magic and technology
I have a lot of hobbies. Almost definitely too many hobbies. Despite this, I keep adding new ones: recently 3D modelling and printing, and in the near future some basic electronics work. These stack on top of my existing skills in digital art, graphic & web design, software development, streaming, and vtubing. It’s a stack of technology-based skills centered on the creation of new experiences and tools through technology, most of which would be impossible or at the very least incredibly difficult using traditional methods.
Professionally, I’m a software developer. I’ve always been amused by the comparison often drawn between developers and wizards, that we study strange and unpronounceable languages nobody speaks for practical purposes, use nearly incomprehensible diagrams in combination with strange symbols to map out our process, and often copy scripts from old books or the works of others which we don’t understand to make dangerous use of them in our own projects. That we do all of the above in the name of making things happen or exist using only ideas and strange writing does make for a compelling parallel.
As for arkana, Wiktionary defines it thusly:
Noun
arcanahttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/arcana
- Specialized knowledge that is mysterious to the uninitiated
- Plural of arcanum
Given how I do what I do for a living, the application of that one should be obvious. More and more people these days are learning to use advanced tech to do amazing things – in part because more of it exists, and in part because designers are more involved in making that technology intuitive to the people using it – but none of it can ever come naturally to anyone. It’s not a part of nature. You need to learn it. That kind of information is definitely arcane to the average person.
With new tools you don’t necessarily need to spend five years study the theory of computation, network protocols, linear algebra and software engineering patterns to do that anymore, but those disciplines are still being applied under the hood, deep in the magic box you use to do your work. They’re not the things I’m going to talk about on my blog, where I have committed the SEO-unfriendly sin of posting about whatever the heck I want without a clear theme, but they do underpin the variety of technomagical projects I take on whether I’m actively using them or not.
As for why I spell it with a k? Well, that part is just for aesthetics.