Men have their IDEAL self and their lowest self.

One strives for truth — other for comfort and conformity and consensus.

One strives for creativity and greatness and wellness — other for pleasure.

 

Consciously we rather PRETEND to be the BETTER selves.

Publicly we rather PRETEND to be the BETTER selves.

Or we USED TO, anyway.

Because we no longer pretend.

We no longer try.

 

We don’t because algorithms revealed our worst selves — and then NORMALISED them.

And then REWARDED them, as a self-reinforcing feedback loop.

 

There used to be the “evil” gatekeeper — deciding what kind of entertainment will be produced.

They assumed the best of the society.

Yes they wanted to make money too.

But they would not dare believe we were so stupid.

They believed the lie. Believed the spurious appearances. Believed you when you pretended you were smarter and more ambitious than you really were.

 

Algorithms are not so naive.

They don’t care about what you pretend to be — it sees what you truly respond to.

You’re not as smart as you pretend to be. You respond to loud, shining plastic shit.

Therefore algorithm is going to give you more of what you want.

 

And as it does — the last incentive you had to PRETEND you were better than you actually are, more curious and ambitious — this incentive is removed.

All you see is dumbed-down garbage — so you begin to accept it as normal.

Previously you were exposed to more sophisticated ideas at least often enough to remind you that it’s NOT normal to feed on empty entertainment all day. To remind you that of more interesting, more sophisticated, more constructive things out there.

Now you’re not even exposed to them.

You no longer even realise how stupid you are, how unambitious and pathetic. It became normal to you.

You no longer even pretend.

 

And thus the algorithmic downward spiral commences!

What was previously the BOTTOM of stupid media consumption for you — is now becoming the STANDARD.

But the algorithms won’t stop there! They will tirelessly keep testing what ELSE you respond to. HOW MUCH MORE attention they can hijack from you.

And after some time of frying your brain and making yourself more stupid, with lower attention span, more deluded with shining and superficial and indoctrinated by a tailor-made bubble of nonsense — you are now well poised to become even MORE STUPID!

The algorithms will sure know when.

They will give you what you need.

They will tell the creators what you need.

The creators will create that shit, even more stupid then before.

And you will consume it.

 

By the way,

The creators themselves, the producers, are obviously no different to consumers.

Yes, one is responsible for output, other for input.

But the output and input must match.

Supply and demand must match.

Therefore the CONTENT of their ideas must match.

As you become more stupid — they become more stupid.

As they become more stupid — you become more stupid.

 

Conclusion is,

Algorithms disrupted the self-consciousness and pretence we once had.

Pretence to at least pretend that we are more ambitious than that.

Pretence to at least pretend that we are somewhat interested in the world, somewhat interested in elevation, somewhat interested in achieving something in this lifetime.

That pretence was at least sometimes supported by action.

Now it’ a contest who can be more stupid.

 

My prediction is that we will indeed have a crisis.

I’m not much of a doomsayer, I think modernity is absolutely best time to be alive.

But there will be suffering.

There’s always inequality and it’s cyclical. Men are not equal. When opportunity comes — the best one’s are first to take advantage of it. The more propitious times for the humanity the more inequality widens. The rest tries to catch up.

The system as a whole tries to catch up, and make sense out of all the changes.

We live in the times of marvellous and horrible tools.

Those that know how to use them — will just skyrocket.

The rest, if not careful, will not only be left behind — but will outright struggle to function.

It will be a comfortable hell. Infinitely more comfortable than the rest of human history — but arguably even worse of an experience.

I’m not much of a doomsayer — but fuck be careful what you consume.

Be careful with the drug of media and entertainment, fuelled by cold algorithms, yet colder still than the coldest man-made system.