The internet at first glance seems like a great way to share photos and art. But the internet is not what it seems. It is actually a great threat to art, and is already well on its way to crushing it.
Indeed, the internet actually has two main problems. The first is that by its very nature, it reduces the quality of human communications. Face to face interaction is replaced by digital signal and can never be as fulfilling. This is a fundamental property of all telecommunications technologies, but is most salient and powerful with the internet since it is the fastest and most powerful.
And, we have to also consider the material utility of the internet. The internet allows more efficient commerce and therefore it disrupts communities: since advertising yourself on the internet brings profit faster, and since the entire structure of modern civilization is based mainly on material exchange, in-person interaction also dies down further.
The second problem of the internet is that due to its increase in speed and its ability to bring great profit, it is being manipulated by large tech companies—the worst dregs of our society. This manipulation is a foregone conclusion of its increase in speed, unfortunately, and therefore cannot be stopped. And what is the nature of the manipulation? It is the implementation of algorithms that further encourage superficial communication between people.
This sort of superficial communication in the form of quick likes and rapid scrolling has become the most prevalent precisely because it is the one which is the most profitable.
These two problems threaten the role of art in a healthy society.
Indeed, the fundamental core of art is to share experience. Art is best understood and shared when it can be savored and when some sort of connection is possible with the art or with the artist. Of course, this does not necessarily have to be a personal connection, but one which is truly resonant on the level of the soul. It is this core that is thus antithetical to the fast-paced and anonymous inherent nature of the internet.
The more this spirit of art is crushed and suppressed, the faster people will scroll in an instinctual attempt to make a connection that is increasingly difficult to make.
In fact, it is in the best interest of tech companies to continue their innovation of new technologies that suppress art. The result is a process that converts art into a product, and that converts expression into anonymous production. No longer is the artist a person who tries to show new aspects of experience. Now, the artist is one who is a replaceable mechanical cog. And AI is the apex technology that works together with the internet to do so. It allows people to produce more work at a faster pace, molding the work and correcting it so that it is more easily digestible in a quick and endless scrolling feed.
Of course, the internet is not the only culprit: all of innovation is, as technological innovation is just part of a larger process of the unveiling of technology by a fundamental metaphysical process.
But, the internet is a crucial element in this process because it represents the communication between technological components. Since human beings are still required to advance and maintain this technology, the system becomes optimized to provide the minimum interaction required to keep us engaged, and engaged in such a way that we power the system.
However, our deeper spiritual need to connect to nature and human beings in turn is ignored, minimized and neglected.
Thus, we come to a world where photos are shared by the millions but where none are truly meaningful beyond the initial visual stimulation they provide. We have a world where artists are replaced whenever possible by AI, and where any attempt to connect on a deeper level is made more difficult every day. And this trend will only continue, and become more crushing as the internet becomes faster and as the mindless drones of silicon valley continue to innovate. Young people with technical talent are promised a path where they can improve the future. But instead, they are taken advantage of, brainwashed, and drained. In the end, they either stay in denial and become mindless acolytes of the technological juggernaut, or burn out.
Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching, “woe to him who willfully innovates”, and yet innovation has become the religion of our times that must not be questioned. We lie to ourselves and say the purpose of this technology is to make life easier, but we are far beyond that point. The proportion of technology that truly makes life better is minuscule in proportion to the technology that destroys life, both human and animal, and indeed all of nature.
This is a serious matter, and in order to fight this infection by technology, we must look in our hearts to find a truly revolutionary pathway to fight it. We must not look to big tech or wait for governments. As Henryk Skolimowski said, “waiting for others to save you is a denial of your authenticity and responsibility”. And, we do have a responsibility to find a way to regain the dignity of life which we have lost for the sake of mere innovation.
As I said before, technology has already robbed us of our physical independence. The robbing of our mental independence is already underway, and the final stage of this process is surely the crushing of art, which is the one means we have to express what it means to exist. But art is no longer what it seems, and we participate in its destruction every day.
The internet is the apex technology in this problem, and we must do something about it. Let us start today to really question it, and question this religious faith we have in technology so that we can start to build a better world.