Humans are so back

Adventures in the material world

How tired are you of hearing about AI and all the problems it’s going to solve for us? Me, very. As an AI sceptic, it feels weirdly uplifting to read mounting reports about a bubble ready to burst. Capital flows between companies pushing AI are shockingly circular, and there just isn’t enough consumer demand to pay for any of these services. When everybody is losing money, claims like ‘AI companions will change our lives’ start to sound increasingly desperate. Instead of improving people’s lives, AI is making everything sloppier. At least a third of all internet traffic now comes from bots. The deterioration in quality is palpable across the web, most notably on social media. Leaving the platforms is no longer a niche move¹.

The reasons for being online voluntarily are disappearing fast.

This is great news. What I think is happening is a sudden jolting back to life in all the messy, human and material ways. We are waking up to the fact that we have a choice. We can hand over our time and attention to the machines, and let people with dubious ambitions profit from our addiction. Or resist what is sold to us as unavoidable. I believe we’re in for a post-algorithmic awakening².

You think it’s too late? According to some statistics, young people don’t go out anymore and prefer to spend their lives online, chatting to bots that affirm their beliefs.

“AI can’t tell you when you’re asking the wrong question. What I see is an engine for the mass production of narcissism at scale,” says Derek Thompson.

That’s a scary prospect, but whenever I’m not on a screen, I can feel that’s not the whole truth³. I notice a conscious shift back to the real world. Snogging, dancing, going on walks together, visiting markets, making things...

Being close to each other feels essential again.

Because let’s face it, being extremely online is also extremely unsexy. I mean, have you ever considered the aesthetic implications of staring at your phone all day?

What is quite lush, however, is reading the paper in a Viennese café. I recently spent a few luxurious hours on my own in this place in the centre of town, a hidden gem in an otherwise very touristy area. It’s mainly visited by regulars, an intellectual arty crowd ranging from 25 to 90 (100?) years. I just love the materiality of it all - the plush pillows, the formica tables, the silver trays the coffee is served on, and the wooden frames the newspapers are fixed to. It’s the total antidote to doomscrolling.

Not to say it doesn’t take some effort to resist the urge to look up random shit on my phone. But the faster and more intense this digital age gets, the more obvious the stupidity of it all becomes. What are we doing???

Maybe one of the most important decisions that we have to make (daily) is whether to be manipulated, let our attention be hijacked, or be present.

In the real world, anything could happen.

Just think of ways you can get people to join you on adventures in the material world. The ones who feel online has more to offer, the ones who are often alone, the ones for whom the cost of experiences is a barrier. Shake them and take them with you! Hug a tree, start a chess club, make some cider… and have fun with your resistance like these guys in NYC!!!

I made cider with a group of local friends & local apples. It was all extremely inefficient and amateurish. We had so much fun. Last year’s yield above.

© all photos shot on film by me

1. There are many brilliant essays about this topic, see here, here and here. Some say, the internet is dying.

2. Alongside a descend further into The Matrix. Take your pick.

3. Making claims on the basis of stats and ‘desk research’ no longer holds. So much of what we see online is just an regurgitation of what’s been said before. We need to do fieldwork again!