Artificialism.

Humanity goes through eras. For example, the past two have been Modernism and Postmodernism. But what era is next on the horizon? For me, I think we have already begun it. An era called Artificialism.

I went to a café to reflect a bit on life, to become an observer of the world rather than a participant in it. I looked out of the window, relaxing my gaze onto the shifting colours of the busy street. I started to wonder if there were any details we all shared in common. Anything that could help me understand the current zeitgeist we live in. It didn’t take long for me to notice that in everyone’s hand, there was a phone.

I decided to take my gaze inside. I looked at the tables that were occupied. Some had phones on the table. Some had phones and laptops. I looked at the queue of people waiting to get coffee. They, too, had phones in their hands. I turned my attention to the phone. I realised it’s a bit like a modern-day spear. It’s become a tool needed for everyday survival. But the phone, unlike a spear, is more like a portal. It enables us to connect with the digital world, a world that doesn’t exist in physical form. An arbitrary universe, designed only by humans and the tools created by humans.

I then started to think about this digital world. How artificial intelligence is the new big hit. People are getting excited by artificial image makers, artificially created videos, and even artificial influencers. Artificial beauty standards have arisen from artificial filters, creating a distorted view of what beauty really is. Once, the human form was seen as a gift, a beautifully crafted design. Now, the ideal form is lost in some fluid, ever-changing algorithm that has no real end goal. People are artificially modifying their bodies to try to match this ‘thing’ that isn’t even real. It’s all just a bunch of ‘artificial ideals’.

I started to play with this artificial ideal. I thought about all the people on LinkedIn trying to defend artificial image-making. Sharing the artificial images they have ‘created’ and saying how it is the future. So I thought, let's play with it. What would the artificial future look like if we continued to let it infiltrate our lives? Then I realised damn, it already has, and my previous paragraph is the proof.

I decided to take it to the other end of the scale. What is the opposite of Artificialism? Realism, right? I began thinking about nature. Nature is real and everything in nature requires sleep and rest at some point or other. This digital beast we have created is the only thing that doesn’t. It is always on. This, in itself, is proof of it being completely unnatural to universal laws. Every time we use it, we keep it alive. We feed it with our attention. But if we toned it down, even just slightly, the world actually looks better.

For example, towns in the UK are dying. There isn’t a community like there used to be. If we went to the extreme of not having a phone, laptop, or TV, we would be bored. This boredom would turn our attention to other things. Making music, art, playing sports, stargazing, seeing friends and family. Suddenly, we would want to go somewhere to socialise. Places would be thriving every day of the week again. We would want spaces to open up, rather than accept them closing down and resorting to more time spent inside, racing our fingers through this digital abyss.

I thought about archaeologists in the future finding the remains of our current society and what they would think. Would there even be anything to look at? Just the skeletons of digital devices rusting next to those of our own. Veins made from copper and plastic outliving the passion that should be running through ours. I thought it would be a shame for us not to leave some kind of epic mark in history too.

Seneca mentioned this idea about wealth: “Riches are slaves in the house of a wise man, but masters in that of a fool.” I think the same can be applied to the way we choose to liaise with the digital beast. We can become the master of it, or become a slave to it. I believe nobody wants to be the latter.

I believe we live in the era of Artificialism. We should think long and hard about which one we want to follow next. For me, I hope we manage to reign it in a little. Taking us a little closer to Realism.