Nothing was ever real

I can imagine a prehistoric caveman shortly after the invention of fire thinking, We used to huddle in the cold and darkness seeking shared warmth and mutual comfort. Now we just sit around the fire telling stories about people and places who aren’t real. What happened to real human connection?

When I was a kid the family used to gather on the couch to watch the television. We’d crack jokes about the stories as they played. The hearth fire was replaced by the warm glow of the telly, but at least we were talking to each other during the pauses.

Now family members each have their own rooms and devices, and they get lost in the glow of hi def pixels. Not everyone lives this way, but it’s becoming the norm. We end up knowing more about the influencers and content creators we watch than the real people in our lives.

I think of this now as I watch those influencers and content creators online losing their minds over AI-generated content. “How will we know what’s real anymore?” What they really want to know is, “How am I going to monetize my content, now?”

We may be cutting the last threads that were tethering us to reality, but let’s not pretend that any of this was ever real.