Living in my favorite '80s cartoon: Jem

Sent from my holographic computer.

Lately, I have my doubts about where technology is going… the depression social media makes us feel, the doomscrolling, the information wars, the disappointing hype cycles, junk AI, total enshittification. Perhaps I should say the tech itself isn’t sus, it’s the companies creating this tech who are sus. I am a techno-realist with a side of optimism, and so I try and look at the potential. It’s still there.

I often wonder why I’m so interested in technology. I wasn’t all that excited about math or science growing up, and haven’t had much interest into learning how to code.¹ I’m not really into engineering or robotics. I don’t want to work in software… clearly, I am a Humanities person.

When I ask myself these questions, I play the overthinking game.² The best way I can explain my overthinking process is this: I throw all the words I associate with myself—memories, hobbies, things I like, aspirations, influences—in a bag shake them up and then dump them all out on the floor like puzzle pieces, then I try to put them together.

In today’s game of “What is Jaime overthinking about now: Technology edition,” I shake up my magic bag and out come technology, synthesizers, AI, and Jem.

In the 80s cartoon Jem, the main character Jerrica Benton uses a special pair of earrings to access a holographic supercomputer / synthesizer named Synergy, which transforms her into Jem, a rock star.³ She inherited the computer from her late father, who kept it hidden, knowing the technology could be dangerous in the wrong hands.⁴ Jerrica also inherited was a home for orphan girls called the Starlight Foundation, founded by her late mother. The Starlight girls and her bandmates become Jerrica’s family, while Synergy acts like both a mother and a protector. Her nemesis is a rival band called The Misfits, whose lead singer’s name was Pizzazz.

Synergy, Jem’s holographic computer, which looks more like a synthesizer/pipe organ combo vanity than a computer. Source

Jem was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid and likely the reason I’m into computers, synths, and perhaps also why I’m an advocate for the positive use of technology. When I look back at all of the cartoons from my youth, Jem feels like the one that has had the most impact on me.

Jem wasn’t like most other ‘80s cartoons. It wasn’t a fantasy (The Smurfs) or radically futuristic cartoon (The Jetsons), had no talking animals (Heathcliff, My Little Pony), nor a team of super heroes (He-Man/Masters of the Universe) or robots (Transformers). It was set in a time that didn’t seem much different than the present day, with realistic people (aside from the whole dual identity/hologram thing). It depicted what I thought “The Future” could look like in my lifetime—a future where intelligent supercomputers could alter reality. Plus, I really wanted to be in a band.⁵

Does more always have to be the goal?

In our current technological age, one could easily see Synergy as the Internet. The Holograms could actually be holograms, or AI avatars, and join Jem to perform in the Metaverse, or on Twitch.

So, I wasn’t wrong when I envisioned Jem as a realistic future that could occur during my lifetime. In fact, I think we’re approaching a time when everyone will be able to create their own Synergy-like artificially intelligent beings, perhaps even bringing them to life as holograms or robots.

We’re already seeing the beginnings of this with ChatGPT, Claude, Meta AI, and other AI models. While Big Tech is in control of the masses, there will be open source opportunities, just as with any other software. I can see the exciting, creative possibilities of a world where humans and AI co-exist. I suppose I’m still optimistically (perhaps naively) dreaming of a world in which our technology is there to protect us, to enhance us—to make us more creative, better.

Wouldn’t that be truly outrageous? Truly, truly, truly.

1. I say “code” meaning learning a programming language that surpasses the basic HTML and CSS I taught myself in the mid-aughts when designing my first websites.

2. My husband loves this game because I’m always playing at 11pm on a weekday when it’s past his bedtime, and I keep him up trying to deconstruct my feelings.

3. Synergy can also “come to life” as a hologram, and has done so in multiple episodes. She follows Jerrica’s orders, with a few exceptions, according to the Jem Wiki.

4. A warning for humanity? Foreshadowing?

5. Every 11-year old’s dream! Although I have yet to join a band (leaving my options open!), I ended up making electronic music as a bedroom producer.