Undawntech: The Beginning of the Analog Mind
Posted: February 6, 2026 Filed under: AI Technology, Undawntech | Tags: AI Technology, Analog Mind, Baby boomers, Gen X, generations, Life, millennials, Undawntech, Writing to be Read Leave a comment
The last of the free-range children live in the X generation. We rode our bicycles to each other’s houses, sometimes miles away. We swam at the local watering hole, or city pool. We walked home from school. We worked out of the family home or business. We watched PG-13 and R rated movies without our parents. When our parents were at work, we unlocked the front door after school and waited for them to return home for dinner. We were given responsibility beyond our years. Our parents never verified where we were unless we didn’t call to check-in, or arrive home at sunset.
Gen X vs Other Generations
Generation X bridges the gaps in society and culture between the Baby Boomers, the children of the Depression Era parents of World War II, and the algorithmic digital minds of the Millennials and Generation Z. Some say that we are a forgotten generation. With all the talk of the younger and aging classes, Gen X could be viewed in this way.
However, we are so much more than what lies in the shadows of other people’s memories. Our generation of kids were born between 1965 and 1980, and it wasn’t an easy time. Our parents dealt with a two-income household as the economics of Globalism took root as the Berlin Wall fell. Many people of this era worked and went to college; there were no free passes. We wanted it all: family, career, and friends. Yet, we kept a sense of humor about it all.
Britannica: www.britannica.com/topic/Generation-X
The Psychology of Generation X Explained: www.newtraderu.com/2026/02/04/the-psychology-of-generation-x-explained
The Last Analog Mind: A Psychological Autopsy of Generation X: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXeEElTfl8o
The Future Resides in the Past
Why are we discussing Generation X? Technology. Boomers are retiring from the rat race. Millennials and Generation Z are rising through the ranks of society. The pillars of stability and wisdom are being handed over to Generation X to navigate the coming breakthroughs in technology.
The Millennials and Gen Z have no analog frame of reference with which to question and ascertain, what is real or what is Memorex? Only Gen Xers will understand that old commercial. Will you know what is or isn’t Artificial Intelligence (AI), if you grew up with it? Gen X can recognize digitization.
This key factor of knowing when something is not what it appears may be the single greatest gift that humanity could receive. We didn’t grow up in an artificial world. We didn’t rely on the news to inform us. Generation X sought knowledge and wisdom.
Now, we have data and data sets. We have curated news and information. We have a prison world of technology. The internet has a kill switch. Your car monitors your driving. The thermostat in your home can be turned off by the electric company.
Generation X never had to deal with the outside looking in. That was our job. Here, we are having to be that sentry, again.
What the Next Generations Lack
Oh, the hate mail in the comments section…
Since Millennials and Gen Z never new a world without the fall out of 9/11, had to deal with two countries with nuclear weapons goading each other every week, or an economy with millions on unemployment, they rely on technology to cloister them in virtual reality and gaming. Those mental escapes don’t create culture or nurture society.
Reliance on all things fictional makes you weak.
Here are some disturbing statistics:
Gen Z may think they have it rough but millennials are the most burned-out generation: https://fortune.com/article/millennials-most-burnt-out-generation-more-than-gen-z
“A 2023 health survey from Cigna revealed 98 percent of Gen Z workers are actively dealing with symptoms of burnout.
Following efforts to rebuild after the pandemic, a 2022 survey by Deloitte found that 46 percent of Gen Z respondents and 45 percent of millennials felt burned out due to the pressures of their working environment. The same report found that 44 percent of Gen Z workers and 43 percent of millennials have rejected job opportunities because of worries about how it may affect their mental health.”
www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennial-workers-lose-ambition-2023476
“Resume Genius asked 625 U.S. hiring managers which generation is the most challenging to work with, and 45% pointed to Gen Z, the generation born between 1997 and 2012. What’s more, 50% of Gen Z hiring managers admitted that their own generation is the most difficult to manage.”
How Generation X Can Bridge the Gaps in Humanity created by Technology?
Mentor your local burn-out. Mentor the generations coming up. Mentor someone before they fail.
Gen X is more than an age statistic that employers refuse to champion. Our generation of kids can become the greatest asset to our culture and society by fostering knowledge, commitment, expectations, and wisdom.
The analog mind has no constraints on creativity, memory, or forward-thinking. Technology has not slowed down our mental or emotional capacities in order to rise above us. We are free-range.
Let’s begin another era of the human analog and outsmart technology.
We became our own heroes.
Now, let’s be theirs.
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Want more analog mind?
Read Kurst: A Salt Pines Mystery for an introduction to free-range thinker.
Karen Kurst comes into the legal possession of her deceased grandmother’s cabin in Salt Pines, Arizona. As she delves into the secrets of the quaint mountain village, she discovers that there is more than meets the eye. A mysterious creature roams the woods, a blended cryptid: Elemental, Sasquatch, and Skinwalker. The only way to contain this entity is through a magical spell passed down by her ancestor, Ralph Wallen II. Teaming up with the local indigenous sheriff, Karen is determined to break the family curse.
However, the question remains – will she have to sacrifice her own life to protect her newfound community?
Visit Kurst: www.undawnted.com/p/kurst-inheritance-curse-cabin.html
The short story is available in Midnight Garden anthology. books2read.com/MidnightGardenAnthology
The novelette is available now at these fine retailers: books2read.com/Kurst
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About DL Mullan
DL Mullan’s lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lectures. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate in the creative arts.
As a creator, Ms. Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, she has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. DL Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet.
Currently, she has embarked on writing her multi-book Legacy Universe, Supernatural Superhero Series, as well as creating original soundtracks for her publications and independent electronic music albums, featured on SoundCloud and YouTube.
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology, and is a syndicated columnist, writing the creative nonfiction, Undawntech.
For news and updates, subscribe to the Undawntable Newsletter. Find DL on Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube via her website.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
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This segment of “Undawntech” is sponsored by the Midnight Anthology Series and WordCrafter Press.
Midnight Roost: Weird and Creepy Stories: 20 authors bring your nightmares to life in 23 stories of ghosts, paranormal phenomenon and the horror from the dark crevasses of their minds. Stories of stalkers, both human and supernatural, possession and occult rituals, alien visitations of the strange kind, and ghostly tales that will give you goosebumps. These are the tales that will make you fear the dark. Read them at the Midnight Roost… if you dare. https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Roost-Kaye-Lynne-Booth-ebook/dp/B0CL6FPLVJ
Midnight Garden: Where Dark Tales Grow: 17 authors bring you 21 magnificent dark tales. Stories of magic, monsters and mayhem. Tales of murder and madness which will make your skin crawl. These are the tales that explore your darkest fears. Read them in the Midnight Garden… if you dare. https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Garden-Where-Tales-Anthology-ebook/dp/B0DJNDQJD3
Midnight Oil: Stories to Fuel Your Nightmares: 14 authors bring you 16 dark tales that explore your deepest fears. These are the stories which nightmares are made of. Tales of monsters, mayhem, and madness which will make you shiver in the dark. Read them while you burn the Midnight Oil… if you dare. https://books2read.com/Midnight-Oil
Mind Fields: Baby Boomers And Self Hatred
Posted: October 7, 2022 | Author: artrosch | Filed under: Commentary, Mind Fields, Opinion | Tags: Arthur Rosch, Baby boomers, Mind Fields, music, Opinion, Social Commentary, Writing to be Read | 1 CommentI’ve noticed that some (as they are called) Baby Boomers are like Jews who are anti-Semitic. My mother was a classic Jewish anti-semite. Hateful rhetoric dropped from her mouth like crap from an owl’s cloaca. “The Jews will trick you every time,” she often said. “You can’t trust them.” Another of her favorites: “Money’s what they’re about. Money money money. Jews do one thing well, and that’s make money. It’s a shonda that Hitler didn’t succeed in wiping them out!” The word “shonda” is Yiddish for “shame” or “too bad”.
As I got into my early teens I stopped being afraid of my mother. I’d outgrown her. She couldn’t beat me up. “Mom”, I would riposte, dodging her clumsy right hook and restraining my urge to retaliate with a knockout uppercut. “You’re a Jew, I’m a Jew, dad’s a Jew, Sandy’s a Jew. How can you say this horrible Nazi crap?”
My mom was crazy. I mean truly bat-poo crazy. Her mind ran like the railroad tracks that led to Auschwitz. There were predictable stops at the same stations at the same times. There were no deviations. Is that one definition of crazy? “An extreme rigidity of thought in which facts and nuances cannot be accommodated lest the pathological structure of said rigidity be broken like a bridge without proper support.”
Let me get back to my original thesis, regarding Baby Boomers. I’m seventy four years old. Demographically I’m a baby boomer. In other cultures I would be a respected Elder but in Amerika I am seen by some as an irrelevant, un-hip old fart who still listens to Sixties pop music. Let me correct this misapprehension. I listened to (and still listen to ) John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and their ilk. I admit to being a huge musical snob.
I enjoyed post-1965 pop music. I bought a limited number of pop records. I bought the second Rolling Stones record. I bought five Bob Dylan records, starting with Bringing It All Back Home and ending with Blonde on Blonde. I hesitated at John Wesley Harding. I had to wait a few years for Dylan’s Multiple Personality Disorder to roll over like slot machine fruit to a configuration I recognized. I never bought a Beatles record. I wasn’t a fan. I am now, but I still don’t buy their records. Who needs to?
It’s weird when I read articles in which Baby Boomers are generalized into a sociological cluster that resembles a haul of mackerel in a giant net. Our nation has been dominated by some nebulous force called Youth Culture since we were Youth ourselves. Now, if we don’t understand or enjoy Hip Hop we’re relegated to the Outer Limits of cultural discard.
Some of the best music I hear is television tease-music. These are theme songs, fragments or background percussion/guitar riffs. They are sound-memes, identifiers of historic hit series like Sons Of Anarchy or Breaking Bad. My ear tells me, “Hey, that’s pretty good stuff..”. Fortunately there is a Breaking Bad CD, or several, divided by Seasons. They’re like playlists. Tasty!
The contemporary musical acts to which I am exposed are forgotten as soon I’ve heard them. I give Lady Gaga props for her science fiction wardrobe and catchy tunes. But most of the singers or bands I hear get me to wondering. Can they play at all? Have they spent fourteen hours a day practicing fundamental exercises on their chosen instruments? Can someone explain to me why the musical acts on “So You Think You Can Dance” are so abysmal? We love the dancing and choreography. Love it! I’m convinced that dance is in the midst of a golden revival, the invention of truly new languages. But when each week’s “musical guest” appears we shudder and watch in horrified dismay. Is some paradigm being revealed? Is music being sucked into a rip tide and washed out to sea?
I seriously doubt it. The distinction here is that the music that’s getting “play” is crappy. I have no refuge. If I want to listen to jazz I’m welcome, of course. But there is no more John Coltrane, no more Charles Mingus. Now we have Marsalis Gumbo, that well known New Orleans dish. It’s good stuff, it shows prowess, soul, it’s jazz. It seems, however, that musical innovation is being led by technology. One can buy a machine that makes sounds that seem to emanate from remote corners of the galaxy. It has no difficulty playing in 15/8 time. We can write and play whatever we want! Our imaginations have been unfettered. Where are the people putting these awesome tools to use? There are no musical categories any more. Jazz as a dynamic art form ran out of gas around 1970. It had played itself into a corner called “New Wave” or “New Thing” and hardly anyone could tolerate the caterwauling that emerged from the saxophones of Albert Ayler or John Tchicai. (A confession here: at the time, I loved New Wave. I was taking acid).
I’m not ashamed of being seventy four years old. The alternative is to be dead. Anyone who has reached such an age has survived a given amount of horrible shit. I’m proud to be a survivor. I know certain things. Shit is a great teacher.
My mother taught me by negative example not to feel contempt for my own tribe. Her railroad tracks ran out in 1980, when she committed suicide. She rolled up on the terminal station of her mental Auschwitz and it didn’t look very inviting.
I know this isn’t my best-written piece, I know it’s sloppy and barely hangs together. I’m trying to start a conversation. I’m tired of being dismissed by little kiddies half my age who are now taste-makers, trend-setters and power brokers.
I’m trying to make my mark as a writer and I passed Rejection Slip #500 a long time ago for my novel, CONFESSIONS OF AN HONEST MAN. It’s as profound and touching a story as all get-out, it will make you laugh and make you cry but it has no vampires, nor anything with long teeth, it’s just about people and the way they go about healing themselves from having crazy mothers. Seventy pages of this book take place in 1982 Afghanistan! It’s exciting as hell!
Literary agents, editors, publishers, taste-makers and other cultural filters and gate-keepers will some day be either seventy four years old or six feet underground. I invite them NOW, (before it’s too late) to get on my train, whose tracks are constantly being built right under the engine and we never know where we might end up.
(Today’s magic word is “Duck on a string”. Okay, four words.)
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Arthur Rosch is a novelist, musician, photographer and poet. His works are funny, memorable and often compelling. One reviewer said “He’s wicked and feisty, but when he gets you by the guts, he never lets go.” Listeners to his music have compared him to Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison.
These comparisons are flattering but deceptive. Rosch is a stylist, a complete original. His material ranges from sly wit to gripping political commentary.
Arthur was born in the heart of Illinois and grew up in the western suburbs of St. Louis. In his teens he discovered his creative potential while hoping to please a girl. Though she left the scene, Arthur’s creativity stayed behind. In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and took part in the thriving arts scene. His first literary sale was to Playboy Magazine. The piece went on to receive Playboy’s “Best Story of the Year” award. Arthur also has writing credits in Exquisite Corpse, Shutterbug, eDigital, and Cat Fancy Magazine. He has written five novels, a memoir and a large collection of poetry. His autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man won the Honorable Mention award from Writer’s Digest in 2016.
More of his work can be found at www.artrosch.com
Photos at https://500px.com/p/artsdigiphoto?view=photos
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