There is always a point when the wave begins to recede. The spectacle loses some of its glamour, the promises become harder to sustain, and what was presented as inevitable begins to look merely excessive. What remains afterward is often more useful than the frenzy that carried it in, but the retreat also exposes what the flood obscured: the interests behind it, the costs absorbed along the way, and how readily we can be persuaded to surrender our attention, judgment, and agency to whatever arrives next.

.   .   .

In my view, it’s not so much backlash against AI that is now occurring in the modern world at large, but more backwash.

The hype cycle of the market, the capitalist system, has to — by its own strange and bizarre, wasteful and exorbitantly expensive definition of necessity — push things so far beyond anything organic or natural. We see it in this most recent hype cycle of so-called artificial intelligence: pushed into every corner of human experience, every device, every computer, every app and banking system, every government and economic system, very prematurely, very haphazardly, very inefficiently.

Inevitably, there will be a backlash, a resistance movement, a revolt, wherein the whole cycle — the tsunami of overwhelm that was imposed upon us — is organically and inevitably ratcheted back and shown for what it actually is, and what it can actually offer in practical utility.

The genuine utility, if there is any, of whatever was introduced begins to show a little promise here and there. Some early adopters have already moved on and given up; some late adopters have now found a new tool with which they’ve become wildly productive and creative in ways they couldn’t even conceive of before. But ultimately, most of it gets flushed.

The noise subsides. The economic and institutional realities show their ugly face. Perhaps the ecological effects are also increasingly and alarmingly exposed. And the whole shitshow finds some sort of grounding in the real, lived world.

Now, should we contrast and compare this with the “hype cycle” that occurred in 2020? The one that lasted right through 2025 — overlapped in 2023 by the introduction of AI, the all-around “savior” we’ve been waiting for — and still lingers in public consciousness as pharmaceutical interests, and all of their various contractors, who profited wildly during the past five years pushing toxic, poisonous, and deadly injections still retain that sway, influence, and psychologically or emotionally charged importance?

Society at large had been systematically and effectively beaten down, depressed, suppressed, psychologically and emotionally isolated, convinced to fight each other, destroy families, shutter businesses, end careers, and adapt to everything else that has followed in the years since. AI couldn’t have been unveiled at a better time, right?

There was certainly resistance and revolution, but not in the mainstream. It was pushed to the fringe: the “conspiracy” collectives, the dissident crowds. But it has since then quietly spilled over into public consciousness in various ways. Truth comes out, even if it’s suppressed and misrepresented at every turn. Uncomfortable questions continue to arise, but most of us aren’t given the time to consider them adequately, or even at all.

Life continues to roll along. There are bills to pay, and money doesn’t go as far as it went even five years ago. The next crisis shows up almost daily and is broadcast across every medium we’re addicted to engaging with and blithely scrolling through. Is it real? Fake? Who knows. Why would they lie?

The next problem, issue, conflict, or distraction happening “over there” captures what little capacity for focus and discernment many of us may still have. And now, we defer the rest… to AI: the technology itself derived, designed, populated, and programmed within systems captured and controlled by many of the same forces, factions, and financial, military, political, and corporate interests that purport to be on the side of Team Human, when it’s clear that has never been the case.

All I can say is, as ever, keep your eyes open. Recover what you can of your sensibilities, sense-making, discernment, logic, and critical thinking so that when these fabricated hype cycles, narrative intrusions, and reality distortions come at you, you’ll be better equipped, less reactive, and perhaps a little less gullible.

Solvitur ambulando