The thought I’m currently preoccupied by is that the diagnosis would be psychosis. In Lacanian terms the pre-psychotic condition, prior to an actual break, rests on the unravelling of the symbolic order; the subject finds themselves unmoored in a bewildering sea of signs without any solid foundation. The worst case scenario for the role of GAI in 2024’s elections is pretty fucking bleak. I wonder increasingly what this would mean for the experienced integrity of the symbolic order, if we see a coverage of GAI in the public sphere as shrill and exhaustive as that which accompanied social media in the mid-2010s. It’s not just the zone being flooded with shit, to paraphrase Steve Bannon, it’s what the recognition of that pervasive condition means for how the integrity of culture is experienced.
