Opportunity Abounds—When the Information Ecosystem Is Endangered
Language, the ability to communicate with one another is the highest ability of the human being. A gift, unlike any other gift, given only to man, a divine power with unlimited potential, for both good and evil. All this is encompassed in simple exchanges among people we meet daily and through digital expression as well.
The internet was going to revolutionize this communication, extending this power across continents to bridge the dimensions of time and distance. And to some extent it has. What a joy to make connections with those of other nations, faiths and cultures.
However, in a unique and unprecedented way, much of that potential is being undermined and undone in a flood of anti-language, a type of synthetic AI speech literally exploding forth in a torrent of banality, like a tsunami, headed for land, poised to overwhelm and submerge true language.
How should we view this wave of AI influenced content being unleashed on the idea ecosystem or the intellectual commons as some like to call it. This will be de-facto censorship without the censoring. Search engines, whether on google, amazon or youtube have room for ten top spots per keyword.
As this glut of material- think “fast food” language with similar toxicities to junk food when taken en masse-- starts moving its way through all the nooks and crannies of the digital world, regular voices not using this amphetamine-like version of content creation will be marginalized, land locked to their tribe or limited to close referrals.
I was sent a video this morning that highlights this tendency from the Unstoppable Journey, a YOUTUBE channel by Dr. Joe Dispensa If you follow this video to his channel page, you will see the content mill in action.
And if you didn’t know, YOUTUBE requires that creators “disclose content that is meaningfully altered or synthetically generated.” How thoughtful of them!
However, the disclosure can ONLY be seen by expanding the description section on the YOUTUBE video page and ONLY IF you scroll down far enough..kind of late if I’ve already been fooled into viewing and sharing.
And equally unsatisfying, if it has caused me to miss an authentic video that never made it into the search results in the first place, having been deprioritized by algorithms due to lower levels of activity, engagement and whatever else YOUTUBE uses.
So in other words, youtube is “game on” with humbuggery. PT Barnum must be rolling in his grave.
The alternative “language-saving” option would be to slap crap-a videos, like the one above, with a nice big fat label of either AGC (Artificial Generated Content), or CCM (Content Creation Mill) OR similarly, to ban them altogether...but what fun would that be-after all new tech-toys are made to be exploited and there is money to be made!
Oh, to be the Gods of social media who decide these things!!
Meanwhile, we the people, are forced to contend with a very real, yet mostly hidden, environmental problem which will be growing exponentially. And unlike tons of plastic bottles clogging waterways and washing up on the beach, or mountains of trash alongside our roads, this contamination of the intellectual commons is mostly beyond our vision.
A toxic spill of this magnitude into our physical environment, would provoke justified consternation and outright agitation for immediate remediation and for perpetrators to be brought to justice.
Is our spiritual environment any less important? For language is truly spiritual, it’s not simply information. Will we insist on authentic communication? Or will we end up living in an “authenticity desert,” surrounded and immersed in hollow words, mercenary words, Anti-language?
The Idea Bullies strike again…
Is this what we want?
A little leaven spoils the whole loaf
Of course, I don’t see any chance of leading this horse back to the barn so the better question is, “How can authentic conversation be stimulated again locally?” For here is a great opportunity!
The GOOD NEWS is that as the waters of life continue to get fouled, the contrast between Language and Anti-language; Authentic and Synthetic; Life-Giving and Mind-Numbing; Truth-Seeking and Mercenary Speech grows more stark each and every day, creating a thirst and hunger for the real thing.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Just look at the resurgence of interest in real food after decades of garbage.
It’s time to create the alternatives the world will be desparately seeking… in our own small ways.
Fear Not Little Flock for I have OVERCOME the world