Semantic Apocalypse
A hypothetical disaster in the future (some now say present) where all signifiers (words, images, symbols, etc) lack not only meaning, but also of all social and historical context. Lacking even of subjectivity .
Some critics of Artificial Intelligence say that the commodification and monopolization of megacorporations of AI and AI research will lead to this:
So then what, exactly, is the semantic content of an AI-produced work of Hildegard von Bingen? It is a “deep fake” of meaning. Such a work points to nothing, signifies nothing, embodies no spiritual longing. It is pure syntax. For art this is the semantic apocalypse.1 It’s when meaning itself is drained away by the mimetic powers we’ve unleashed. ~
Some say that this will happen as we begin to learn more about how the mind and our brains work. Science throwing the baby of Consciousness out with the bathwater of superstition:
Why does it have to be madness? Because we define madness according what our brains normally do. Once we begin personalizing our brains, ‘normally do’ will become less and less meaningful. ‘Insanity’ will simply be what one tribe calls another, and from our antiquated perspective, it will all look like insanity.
... Once the human brain falls into our manipulative purview, anything becomes possible. ... willing might be mixed with hearing, so that everytime a dog barks, you have the senstation of willing all creation into existence.... Reason could be married to vision, so that everything you see resounds with Truth. The combinatorial possibilities are as infinite as are the possibilities for creating some genuinely new...
And where does the slow and static ‘human’ fit into all this? Nowhere I can see. ~
Can also be seen as a worldwide Infohazard .
Can also be a generalized (worldwide) context collapse
AIs in their current form as Large Language Models are probably going to cause an internet-wide semantic breakdown by pumping it full of garbage. A DDOS for meaning.