Convergent Stupidity

The phenomenon of societal ‘dumbing down’ is undeniable. While terms like “uninformed” or “disengaged” may seem too blunt, there is a notable drift – both culturally and intellectually – towards a collective state that is increasingly indifferent, uninspired, and detached from genuine engagement with one another.

And yet, this shift is layered beneath a polished sheen: an exuberant rhetoric of technological reform and investment narratives that celebrate the ascent and utility of sophisticated predictive systems. These systems, seamlessly propagating through our implicit consent, thrive on perpetuating the inequities and biases that are woven deeply into their history and constitution.

In truth, the intricate, self-propagating logic of these communicative frameworks is sculpting a cartography of fragmented, anxious identities – each optimally primed to identify, inhabit, sustain and amplify the very detachment and instability that such (now) Global communications networks invoke.

Language around entropy and complexity, emergence and adaptation is all (or at least generally) pertinent in this context and yet – have you noticed that salient analyses and strategic engagements with the world’s complexity tend to simply generate more combinatorial multiplicity, more perverse incentives/unintended consequences and more hollow marketing and/or political rhetoric?