AI Slop as a DDOS on Attention

[Zeno Izen]

This article is a year old, but I only just came across it. And I havent actually read it. Still, the title itself proposes an interesting perspective about our current Art vs. Tech situation.

I've mentioned it elsewhere. I think AI is potentially the source of some really severe cultural flattening, which you could also call catastrophic and epidemic mediocrity. Potentially. Obviously nobody knows, nobody can know. 

The more important thing is that, even if such a flattening never happens, mail art is an important force against this type of thing. And a technique of bypassing it. We make things ourselves, personal expressions of our own individual way of seeing and being, and we send them to each other to experience directly and individually. No electronic interference. No distractions. Tactile and optical interaction with the aura of another human being's eccentric and inimitable expression of how they experience this bizarre thing called life. 

Mail art is important. It might be crucial. I dont know. Time will tell.

https://neuralhorizons.substack.com/p/the-flood-ai-slop-as-a-ddos-o...

The Flood: AI Slop as a DDoS on Attention

[MH//ANTIPODE]

I only skimmed the article myself, so i'm mostly reacting to the general idea here...

I think that's probably where i'm at too: the Pandora's box is already open. AI isn't going away, and neither is the flood of generic crap it can produce.

I still see AI more as an amplifier than the original cause of the problem. If it floods the system with shit, there was already a system pretty well optimized for producing shit. But an amplifier doesn't only amplify the bad stuff... it can also amplify useful things, interesting ideas and genuinely helpful applications (medicine being an obvious example). So i'm not convinced that cultural flattening is inevitable, even if i can totally see why it might happen.

And i agree with you about Mail Art. There is something fundamentally different about making something, putting it in an envelope and sending it directly to another person... no feed, no algorithm, no engagement metrics, just this weird little physical object eventually showing up in someones mailbox. That does feel like a pretty good way of bypassing some of that machinery (and then i still post it on IUOMA or sometimes instagram, lol)

And yes, i'm obviously still feeding some AI-based work into the network, don't see much point in pretending the technology isn't there... i'd rather experiment with it and see what can actually be done with it.

Mail Art might indeed be one of the places where a different logic can survive etc etc. As you said it: time will tell :)

[Zeno Izen]

yeah, I like your perspective. it would be (and is) stupid to take an extreme side on this phenomenon. it's happening, like it or not.

as for the potential mass flattening, it is more of visceral dread for me than an idea or opinion. and as ever,  I'd be smarter to keep my eyes open than stick with my expectations. 

one day at a time I guess. thanks for sharing your perspective on this. it is definitely feeding my thoughts