In the television series, the Technical Boy is merely one incarnation of an older and wider deity, the New God of technology, who keeps "upgrading" by becoming a new incarnation of himself every time technology evolves.

The "god of technology" and the mechanism of the incarnations[]

Bruce Langley explained in an interview that Technical Boy is not the god of technology per se, because technology is as "old as man using a stick", while Technical Boy is a new god, a "manifestation of a critical mass": when enough people in the world believe in or use a certain technology. More precisely, Technical Boy is the ephemeral embodiment of a "god of technology" - thus making him much older than what people think - including Technical Boy himself. According to the actor, the real question would be "is the newer version aware of the existence of the old?" and Bruce Langley intentionally does not answer the question: Technical Boy might or might not be aware of his older versions, he might be as much "the essence of an older god constantly updating" or a "discrete manifestation of one kind of technology", but all in all Technical Boy's main worry stays the same: if he is not the shiniest and the most recently updated version of himself, he is "not important". ^[1]

Bruce Langley also precised that each incarnation of Technical Boy "bleeds" into the next one, each avatar influencing the following one - as a result, even though the upgrade into Quantum Boy failed and Technical Boy returned to his previous incarnation, some of Quantum Boy's influence stayed, explaining the change in appearance and behavior of Technical Boy in season three. ^[2]

The incarnations of the "technology god"[]

Technical Boy[]

The embodiment of early 21st century technology, such as computers, the Internet, smartphones and virtual reality. See: Technical Boy/Series

Telephone Boy[]

An incarnation of the technology god from the 1920s and 1930s, and the god of telephones. Seen in Donar the Great

TBA

Quantum Boy[]

An attempt of Mr. World to "upgrade" Technical Boy, forcing him to become the god of quantum computers. Seen in Moon Shadow.

While it is never explained in season three why the upgrade to Quantum Boy did not work, Bruce Langley explained in an interview that it was decided in accordance to how unstable quantum computers are in real life, resulting in the "upgrade" not working as planned. Though Technical Boy returned to his previous incarnation, some of Quantum Boy's upgrade stayed "stuck" in Technical Boy, resulting in a change of behavior and appearance in season three - the god now being something "in between" his previous and current incarnation. Bruce Langley also revealed in the same interview that the white suit worn by Quantum Boy was based on the artificial cooling tubes used to cool down the quantum computers, known to produce an extreme heat. ^[3]

Trivia[]

Behind-the-scenes material revealed that a deleted scene shot for season 2 involved another previous incarnation of Technical Boy, closer in appearance to the god as he appears in the novel (overweight and stereotypically geek-like). This incarnation seems to have been from the 1980s/1990s and was strongly associated with video games. For more info, see Deleted Material.
The costume worn by Bruce Langley as "Telephone Boy" was tailored two decades before for a theater role of Eric Peterson, the actor of the Caretaker. ^[4] Eric Peterson's name was still in the jacket.
In several interviews given during the airing of season 2, Neil Gaiman, while explaining the reincarnation process of Technical Boy, mentionned three past incarnations: "Telegraph Boy", "Telephone Boy" and "Television Boy". Given Telephone Boy was seen in season two, it is unknown if those other incarnations were considered to appear in the show, or merely examples given by Neil Gaiman. ^[5]
Bruce Langley, when asked about the "war flashback" Technical Boy experienced in A Winter's Tale, explained that Bilquis merely "unlocked" something that was always inside him, giving him back memories he lost, making him remember something that he experienced somehow - though the actor stays vague as if whether or not it happened to one of the past incarnations of the god. ^[6]