Shortcut technologies

Building on the logic of acceleration and availability (→ technology resonance), the term "shortcut technologies" can be introduced.

Yet, this is not an established scientific term. The term shortcut technology precisely describes a class of tools or technological processes whose primary goal is to shorten, bypass, or automate established — often time-consuming or labor-intensive — (learning) processes.

The promise: to achieve a desired result faster and with less effort than traditional methods.

The range of such technologies extends from simple keyboard shortcuts and software automation to AI-driven systems that take over complex analytical or creative processes. The influence of shortcut technologies is illustrated by the assumption of a hypothetical scenario that doesn't sound entirely unrealistic.

Due to the conditioning that there is a pill for everything, the Dutch neurobiologist Brankele Frank recently posed the question:

If we could produce a pill that provides all the cognitive and emotional benefits of music lessons, many parents would administer it to their children every morning.

This is justified, in the example of learning a musical instrument, by the ability to overcome an invisible boundary with the help of technology (→ medication).

Learning or even mastering a musical instrument is still perceived as a privilege and almost elitist. However, those who shy away from the effort imagine bypassing the exertion with the shortcut technology of a pill. This example can be applied to many things related to the digital culture. Students already argue why they should learn something if it can be researched in seconds on the Internet.

The appeal of shortcut technologies lies in their efficiency and the apparent democratization of skills and results. They integrate seamlessly into Hartmut Rosa's "Triple-A Approach" (→ technology resonance) by making things available, accessible, and achievable — faster than ever before. Yet herein also lies their ambivalence: They threaten to overshadow those moments crucial for resonance experiences — engaging with the process, the effort, enduring uncertainty, personal development, and the transformation of the self in the execution of a practice.

Thus, shortcut technologies carry the risk of cultural reductionism. The path is sacrificed for the goal, and with it often disappears the deeper meaning or transformative character of an action. What remains is the result — but without the experience that imbues it with meaning.

Language models as an example of a shortcut technology

The average users, the "realos," differ from early adopters. Not every innovation catches on, as Second Life, Segway, or Google Glass show — even though some were ahead of their time.

The early adoption of technology by realos increases with the degree of a digital culture.

While the radio took 9 years to reach 50 million users, the iPod achieved this in 9 months. Felix Stalder explains that digital technologies take hold where there was already a demand for them, and are linked to certain cultural practices. New technologies move from the periphery to the center, facilitated by a structural change in society. Shortcut technologies thus encounter an already adapted → cultural practice.

It was a combination of positive vision and pressure that motivated diverse actors to change their past behavior, established processes, and established institutions, sometimes with considerable effort.

In the culture of digitality, there already exists a cultural framework for early technology adoption.

Directly to the product

The phenomenon is increasingly discussed in creative processes, as we find in art.

The notion that AI could take away from us the very soul of the world — the creative struggle itself — by bypassing this process of grappling with the path and providing only the product, might be sufficient for a discouraged society. We simply input: "Create a song for my husband on our anniversary" — and out comes this song, and that suffices for us.

The creative struggle is ultimately considered an obstacle on the path to the end product.

Science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar in July 2025 in the podcast Tech und Schmetterlinge:

Because it's the processual that enriches our lives. And I believe, especially in the artistic realm, this aspect must be emphasized five times because, at the moment, the focus is always on the product, not the path. And ultimately, it is the path that makes life beautiful.

That should deeply concern us. The observation of how all our truly transcendent experiences are being chipped away. This kind of AI — the idea that we can create songs without artists and all the chaos that makes up an artist, and go directly to the product — is symptomatic of a general development that we must convey to more people.

Hence

Shortcut technologies represent a fundamental paradox of our digital present: They promise efficiency and democratize access to results, while simultaneously undermining the valuable process of learning and personal development.

In a culture that increasingly prioritizes the product over the process, we are confronted with the question of what price we pay for these shortcuts. The deeper meaning often lies not in the achieved goal but in the transformation we experience along the way.

Shortcut technologies challenge us to consciously decide when efficiency is appropriate and when the longer path provides the more valuable experience.