Technogenic Dysmetabolism (TGD), Defined

DEFINITION: 

Technogenic Dysmetabolism (TGD)

Technogenic Dysmetabolism (n.): A comprehensive, systemic disorder affecting the global populace, the planet, and the human mind, rooted in the malfunctioning metabolic processes of a society shaped by corporate and technological interests.

This condition extends the medical definition of metabolic disorders to a planetary scale, with three interconnected dimensions:

1. A Physical Breakdown: "Non-breathing" corporate citizens—particularly in the agri-food and tech sectors—possess a growth-driven "metabolism" that is fundamentally unhealthy. Their business models create a symbiotic feedback loop where a corporate "diet" of cheap, high-carbohydrate food is consumed by a populace immersed in a technology-driven, sedentary lifestyle facilitated by devices. The result is a rise in literal metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity, reflecting a breakdown in the natural human metabolic process.

2. A Mental and Cognitive Breakdown: The mind itself suffers from a form of metabolic disorder. Bombarded by a continuous, low-nutritional stream of information from devices, it develops a cognitive "insulin resistance." It consumes an abundance of data without the ability to metabolize it into meaningful appreciation, resolution, or wisdom. The constant intake of information without productive output leads to a state of perpetual distraction and unfulfilled mental consumption.

3. A Planetary Breakdown: The same flawed metabolic process of continuous resource consumption and waste production by the corporate citizen—enabled by a mentally and physically disordered populace—leads to environmental degradation. This results in an unsustainable accumulation of material and digital "obesity," affecting the entire planet.

This concept thus serves as a critical framework for understanding how the pathologies of our economic and technological systems are directly manifesting as a global crisis that affects our physical health, our cognitive function, and the health of our environment.

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My Meta Moment: Standing at the Event Horizon

Manifestinction has always been my guide—showing me connections I hadn’t seen, pulling threads from distant pasts to the very edge of the present. It was never a straight path, never predictable. More like a walkabout through unfamiliar territory, taking me to places I needed to be rather than places I thought I should go.

Lately, in a vivid dream, I found myself standing at a threshold—not a gentle passage, but an event horizon. A boundary between this and that, between what is known and what can't be known without crossing over. Not merely life and death, but something more profound, akin to the way a black hole pulls everything in, transforms it, metabolizes it into something entirely new. A boundary where old distinctions collapse, and something essential emerges.

This boundary echoed my earlier walkabouts, back when I wandered Cambodia’s ancient temples—long before corporate algorithms and digital overload reshaped our collective consciousness. Back then, information wasn't constant noise but slow wisdom. Time was spacious enough to digest each experience, to integrate it fully into who I was becoming. Today, we rush toward that event horizon, overwhelmed by data, perpetually distracted—consuming without truly metabolizing.

Now, older and heavier, my body reflects the world itself: a physical manifestation of our society’s Technogenic Dysmetabolism. We absorb calories without nourishment, information without understanding, resources without renewal. A corporate-driven metabolism eating away at our health, our planet, and our minds, spiraling toward our own event horizon.

Yet, the dream asked clearly, gently:

Will you choose extinction or emergence? Will you cross this boundary blindly or consciously metabolize what you've consumed?

This is the essence of Manifestinction’s wisdom: recognizing we're at a cosmic tipping point, the place where this becomes that. We’ve arrived at the threshold, collectively and individually. The black hole is no longer distant; it's here, pulling at our culture, our ecosystems, our very identities. The choice is ours—to consciously transform, or unconsciously fall into extinction.

Standing here, at this horizon, I see clearly the connections that have always been present: between my youthful journeys and today’s existential challenge, between the physical and metaphysical, between consuming and truly nourishing. All things drawn together by the quiet gravity of Manifestinction’s unfolding truth: unified choice.

Campbell Auer, August 2025