Vignette #3 — Miasma

"All the good things we did, to create justice, fairness, health, education, aware and insightful decisions, untethered in a short few years by short sighted individuals and capital funded hubris.

"First came the social, the sharing, the connections. Millions of ignorant declarations, free of research and education, driven by fear of difference, fear of the unknown.

"Then the algorithms, reducing and amplifying the message. Creating millions of individual silos designed only to reinforce belief.

"Then the bots, stirring the pot with politically driven misinformation, propaganda, baseless rumours and lies. Launched by political rivals, or just bored kids in their basement, killing time.

"Then the whole feed into AI. worldwide neurosis, fear and misinformation distilled into a vast, efficient engine for creating more of the same. The AI doesn't care, it's just repeating what it's told. A replication of the most average, over and over.

"Layered on top of this, a vast network of crypto—digital currency fuelled by hype, trolling and organised crime networks. The AI and bot layer sent it all into an exponential spiral of speculation with no scope to implode. Coin bought by coin bought by coin bought by coin, any tangible layer of capital at the bottom dissipated years before.

"In the end it started feeding on itself. AI churning out vast streams of content based on AI content, bot driven misinformation and unfiltered , meaningless imagery.

"It all became of no use to anybody. A vast, unstoppable digital miasma inhabiting warehouses full of servers across the planet, powered by hydrothermal vents, solar farms and miniaturised nuclear plant. It couldn't turn itself off and everyone else forgot how to.

"Connections degraded, servers malfunctioned, nobody had the time or reason to fix any of it. Faced with an increasingly angry planet, humans started trying too late to fix their real problems."