Dead Brain Theory

Maybe this is just how things evolve. Or maybe something subtle is slipping away.

All this time we’ve been discussing Dead Internet Theory. With the rise of AI, and all media being flooded with mindless words, text-generated pictures and slop videos, the internet sure feels dead. Too much useless stuff and all for engagement farming.

According to the University of New South Wales, “The Dead Internet Theory essentially claims that activity and content on the internet, including social media accounts, is predominantly being created and automated by artificial intelligence agents.” Are we surprised that this happened in a greedy, profit-maximalist world? I’m not.

Discourse on this topic has a certain helpless “What have we done?” sentiment to it. Like we’ve let AI roam wildly and now have to deal with the consequences. We view it like we’ve just let another great thing, the internet, go to shit because we let AI go out of hand...

Sounds familiar.

What about a Dead Brain Theory? Right now, we discuss how all the content on the internet will be infested with AI, but what about our brains? With all the media I consumed as a child, and now as an adult, I wonder how many of my thoughts have actually been incited by some Tech Giant or crafted by a corporation. Idolizing an influencer or having an echo chamber of friends, it’s just monkey see, monkey do. And we wouldn’t define that as using your own
brain freely...

Here’s what I mean by Dead Brain Theory: it’s the slow erosion of original thought. It’s the mind stuck on autopilot, constantly reacting but rarely reflecting. To use your brain freely is to let yourself sit in thoughts and feelings, not immediately going on TikTok for a few scrolls and a quick dopamine fix before bed.

I believe that taking the time to reflect in a meditative way is something that frees your mind as you let it wander without influence.

I would like to coin the term Dead Brain Theory now, so when the iPad-kids are no longer iPad-kids but iPad-in-their-mid-30s, maybe will it be clear enough that their minds have been overtaken by the media they have consumed.

If Dead Internet Theory describes a web full of bots and filler, Dead Brain Theory describes a mind full of noise, running someone else’s script. Either way, we can try to stop letting every moment be filled, every thought shaped, every silence interrupted.

As they say, use it before you lose it, but I’m not sure this can be executed to be rendered effective. Maybe this is just how things evolve. Or maybe something subtle is slipping away.

— Sydney Ung in Adbusters 180: World Uprising Now