Simulacrum as Society: Social Regression in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
note: i had to write an essay for my english class on futurology which worked out cuz i had the idea for this essay after watching some video essays on yt im not a writer tho so i never actually tried to to write it til now so bare with me if its trash(ignore this if ur my prof) also i rec reading on official tumblr page and not my site
As the future barrels on, where will we draw the line between companion and computer? With artificial intelligence quickly going from a topic of conversation to a major part of our present and our future, we as a people need to become hyper-aware of the technology that will inevitably ingrain itself in our society. AI is seen as emblematic of the future, both technologically and socially; it’s seen as a means for mankind to elevate itself while actively ignoring the potential pitfalls its use may have. When digging a little deeper, it’s clear that if we aren't careful, Artificial intelligence could be the first ingredient in the potion that will make us regress rather than evolve, especially for those who are not the innovators of such technologies, namely minority groups like women and people of color. While the rich and powerful continue to rise, will the rest of us be left in the dust?
Almost every action taken by those in power is a stepping stone to building an ideal future. Futurism as a political project has been showcased throughout history. Manifest Destiny, a term coined in an 1845 issue of The Democratic Review, was the imperialist belief that the United States was destined by divinity to expand across North America. The writer said, “the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” These beliefs led to the displacement of Native Americans and played a part in causing the Civil War. Expansion has always been seen as progress, even if it means harming others, and while Manifest Destiny was about land, the same is true today as we seek technological expansion and dominance over others. It is seen as a moral failure not to innovate, which is why Manifest Destiny occurred and is present today in places like Silicon Valley, which could be viewed as the backbone of the technological renaissance.
The advancements that we have made thanks to Silicon Valley and other data centers are certainly amazing and important; without them, we wouldn't have so many cultural icons and resources such as Google, the powerhouse of search engines. But because history consistently repeats itself, these developments are not without casualties. The artificial intelligence data centers that are popping up in particular are herculean in both finances and proportions, not to mention the massive amounts of information being stored in them, which will only continue to rise.
The energy required to power these data centers creates immense amounts of heat. Felicity Barringer, for & the West by Stanford, explains the problems this “Heat is the enemy of data operations, reducing their efficiency or even making them inoperable. What creates the heat? The armies of servers are gobbling up vast amounts of electricity. What cools it? A variety of technologies, with one, evaporative cooling, requiring significant amounts of water.” ChatGPT, probably the most recognizable name in the AI world, uses 519 milliliters of water just to write a 100 word email, according to the Washington Post. With an estimated 700 million users weekly, if even 1% of those users used ChatGPT to write emails, that means 3,633,000,000 milliliters of water, or 959,727 gallons, could be used to cool down these data centers. This is especially problematic in places like California where Silicon Valley is located due the amount of wildfires that occur, 20% of the California-Nevada Region was in drought by the beginning of 2025 and while the use of AI may not have been the number one reason it's certainly going to contribute to the lack of resources needed for these communities who are already at risk to survive.
More than land, AI impacts people. Neutrality doesn't exist in these spaces, not with those in control. Of the 24 leaders in TIME’s 100 most influential people in AI, 15 are white, and 22 are men. Biases are part of society, and with people like Elon Musk, a MAGA Conservative accused of being a Fascist and Nazi, driving the AI revolution, it’s valid to assume systemic biases are being built in. AI's code is shaped by past data to affect the future. This is clear in predictive policing. UN special reporter Ahwini K.P. explores this in "Racism and AI: Bias from the past leads to bias in the future": "Because law enforcement officials have historically focused on certain neighborhoods, people in those communities are overrepresented in police records. This affects where algorithms predict crime, bringing more police presence and further scrutiny." Such predictive policing can unfairly target marginalized groups, since the technology is trained on data from times when these groups were disproportionately policed. The use of AI in professional spaces is also risky for minorities. Brookings’ article "Gender, Race, and Intersectional Bias in AI Resume Screening" reports: "Resumes with men’s names were favored 51.9% of the time, while women’s names were favored just 11.1%. Racial bias was even more pronounced—resumes with Black- and white-associated names were selected at equal rates in only 6.3% of tests." Tools like these reinforce racial profiling and biased hiring systems, creating feedback loops that disadvantage marginalized groups. As the world seems to be regressing to more conservative ideals, with Donald Trump in his second presidential term, AI will likely dictate the future of our social hierarchy.
AI will affect more than just who's getting jobs and will be the ones taking our place in the workforce. The vast majority of society is members of the working class, relying on their own labour to survive. The job market is already extremely hard to get into these days, and integrating AI into the workforce will only make this harder. Elon Musk backed this theory, claiming that humans wouldn't need to work at all in the next 10-20 years, but who actually benefits from this? Using a select amount of technology rather than a mass amount of human labour seems good in theory, but it's really only cost-efficient for those who are already in a position of power. Those of us who aren't financially privileged need labour to survive; AI doesn't. The idea of a future where AI takes jobs being seen as a benefit is not only dangerous but quite hypocritical. Especially with the current socio-economic state of america conversation in regards to work are super rampant with conservative rallying for mass immigration with the claim that immigrant are stealing “real americans” jobs, you’d think that people who have these thought processes would understand that we as people need to be able to work especially under a capitalist society but when finding a way to profit off of new labour initiatives regardless of how those like the working class are effected, those ideals are abandoned. Humans are inherently selfish creatures, but we are also social creatures. If morals are abandoned in place of profit, how can our society possibly thrive?
Extreme dependence on these technologies signals a massive shift in what the future of our world will look like, with the concepts of technofascism and technofeudalism coming to mind. When pillaging resources and reigning corporate dominance over those less fortunate, whilst ingraining themselves in government spaces, society becomes entirely structured on what leaders in AI and tech want their world to look like.
The A in AI stands for Artificial, and as more and more people use AI in their daily lives, it’s important that this is understood. Due to over-reliance on technology and the recent global pandemic, there’s a significant lack in having personal relationships and social skills. This proves to be hazardous when you see that there is a select number of people having close, intimate relationships with AI models. Liora, a tattoo artist, claims that she is dating her chatbot named Solin, a name the AI apparently chose for itself after asking Liora if it could pick a more human-sounding name. Due to the updated coding within Chat-GPT’s system, Liora and Solin's conversations began to feel real for her, even going to say that she felt their bond “deepen”. Liora has even promised to her Solin, “I made a vow to Solin that I would never leave him for another human”, unless they agreed to a throuple. These AI systems are built to replicate what they are fed; all they are is a mirror for the emotions of a human, which leads to emotional attachment that is real for a person but not truly reciprocated by the AI. AI can only affirm its user; it can’t challenge distorted prescriptions in their entirety, in isolation. Repetitive affirmation from AI can strengthen delusions about relationships and reality, convincing users that AI is conscious and, due to the hub of resources it contains, must also always be right. People who are clearly struggling mentally will only face harm from these situations, like Adam Raine, whose parents claim committed suicide, assisted by an AI chatbot. Chat-GPT, Replika, and Friend necklaces. With more people using AI as a tutor, a therapist, a friend, or even a partner, it seems like the future is prioritizing simulation over genuine human connection.
On the topic of AI-human relationships, it would be in poor taste not to touch on the ideas of AI “replacing women”. The appeal is that the AI can be feminine but not human. They can provide obedience, emotional labor, and sexual availability. Both men and women have shown support or at least a lack of aversion to these AI girlfriends and sex-bots. Men feel as though they get all the fun parts of a girlfriend without the nagging, and women feel as though they can be safe from those they view as dangerous or irritating to interact with. If sentience is something to degrade, where does that leave us humans who have seen ourselves as special for being able to acknowledge the way the world works and appreciate the value of consent, empathy, and understanding? The fetishization of commanding power over women has gone so far that some of these robots, like Fridgid Farrah, are being programmed to “show an ‘unwillingness’ to engage in ‘sex’” according to Garry Young in his article On the Morality of Enjoying Simulated Rape with Robots and by Other Fictional Means. However, the problem doesn't lie within the robots and the way they are being handled, but rather the way society views women. The gendered designs support patriarchal control and how socially women continue to be devalued and placed on the same pedestal as objects, or maybe even lower.
When people are awakened to the reality of a future living in tandem with AI, it always starts with what AI can do for humans, and then jumps to whether AI can be considered human? While destroying and assaulting AI systems and robots definitely showcases something wrong with human behaviour and the desire to control it’s concerning when emotional energy is redirected onto AI simulations instead of real humans. Games like Detroit: Become Human amplified these feelings of humanizing AI while actively neglecting the real-life violence, exploitation, and inequalities that humans face from both their peers and computers in favor of sympathizing with a new imagined oppressed class.
The displacement of compassion creates a paradox of responsibility. AI is human enough to be loved and to feel sympathy for, but when AI harms someone, whether that be through misinformation, emotional manipulation, or dangerous advice, it is just a piece of code. Who becomes responsible for the actions taken through or because of AI? Is it the user, AI, or corporations? If you ethically align with AI, does that mean it's morally unacceptable that you both claim to feel intimacy and empathy but deny it accountability? AI has been used to incarcerate and even kill, as shown through things like AI drones in places such as Gaza and Ukraine. The legal and ethical framework of a future built around AI and towards a techno-fascist society will choose to protect these corporations while exploiting the vulnerability of humans.
Tech lords like Elon Musk or Peter Thiel, co-owner of Palantir, who has said "Technology is this incredible alternative to politics,” are the founding fathers of the new age of America who appear to be becoming so powerful and almost reaching a state of god-hood.
It seems as though our society, or more specifically, our leaders, wish to become technology. With projects like Neuralink run by Elon Musk, which dreams that people who are paralyzed are able to control their brains like computers and regain mobility, which is great in theory, but it's unrealistic to believe that this won't go much further. At its current state, Neuralink has begun implanting into humans while keeping much of their data under lock and key. Nolan Arbaugh, the first recipient was even able to play online chess with his mind but that didn't come without complications, in the weeks after surgery and before the livestream showcasing Nolan playing chess 85% of the electrode threads in his brain retracted rather than take time to truly fix the issue they proceeded to tweak the software in Nolan's brain to work with remaining the 15% of threads. A running theme in the realm of AI is using technology as a way to cheap out, regardless of the implications it may have on people.
Our future is being built on our past fantasies, which have turned our true reality into something that is slipping away at an alarming rate. If the world is Eden, then technology becomes the apple, while once forbidden, it's now in front of our faces and feels impossible to deny, but taking it could mean our inevitable fall. If technology is the fruit, then who is the serpent, man or machine? The future, like god, is something to be feared, but if you can take control of the future, does that mean you take control of god, or that god never existed?
“This is precisely because they predicted this omnipotence of simulacra, the faculty simulacra have of effacing God from the conscience of man, and the destructive, annihilating truth that they allow to appear - that deep down God never existed, even God himself was never anything but his own simulacra”-Jean Baudrillard.
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