this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2025

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Cultural awareness has so far been shaped by thinkers and artists who often received little to no recognition during their lifetimes. Is even that still possible today? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by DandomRude@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

LLMs and image generation models make it even more difficult for artists and thinkers, who are already in a precarious situation, to make a living from their work. This is not a recent development, as evidenced by the fact that they have been referred to indiscriminately as merely content producers for decades, which gives the loss of value of their important work a telling name even in today's logic.

This professional group has not received adequate financial recognition for its work, - tbh they never did - but their situation has become way worse since the advent of the World Wide Web.

Still: Today's technology in the form of so-called AI intensives this problem to an unprecedented degree.

So: Have we reached the end of culture and are we now entering an age of absolute dullness in which there can no longer be a critical spirit, but only amateurish work and industrially mass-produced corporate views? All that however far removed from the craftsmanship that has so significantly shaped the culture of all civilizations throughout the world's history for so long?

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[–] adhd_traco@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago

Fascism supersedes AI in all aspects here, imo.
For example, fuck whatever AI is doing if your art is publicly funded, or you can live on UBI because humanity progressed towards truthful discoveries rather than the multi-billion dollar complex that keeps the rich & powerful where they are.

If AI would be in the hands of the people at large, this technology would in many ways not be causing so much trouble.
But as we are entering into increasingly more fascist territory in the west, that means little hope for effective controls. If anything the interest to use it to aid oppressing those that fascism intends to oppress fits more in line.

It means legal, financial and other freedoms are limited as people are to be sucked dry and controlled and not get any dangerous ideas. So not a whole lot of freedom around creating arts and/or creating thoughtful stuff. Wanna hang out with that interesting non-obeying person, hm Social Score? How's the art scene and all those great writers in North Korea? Wanna philosophize about the creation of Israel, genocide and moral duty, publicly in Germany?

So that great craftsmanship you speak of, might require resources and ideas that will not be permitted in that combination in the future.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

What makes you think people ever paid attention to thinkers?

Most people can't explain what philosophy is, much less name five philosophers.

[–] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I'm pretty sure most people with a bit of education could name philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Marx, Nietzsche and Kant. And especially in case of political philosophers like Marx, people sure seem to have paid attention to him.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago

Sorry to bust your bubble, but most people don't have a college education. In the USA, the average reading level is below middle school.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/08/02/us-literacy-rate/

In the UK, about 20% of the population is considered functionally illiterate.

And even of those who do, how many actually took a philosophy class? And of those who passed, how many have read a philosophy book in the past year?

[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

And quartz, of course.

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

People paid very well in the past - although most of it publishers and the like. Still: Professionals could somewhat live from the scabs.

Today, however, all these business models are obsolete, even though they brought in billions until around the turn of the millennium.

My statement is quite simple: in the future, no one will even try the hopeless anymore, because there is not even a dream to be chased.

The conclusion is pretty obvious: there will only be AI slop, which is not even close to being a substitute for what has been lost.

There is already a term for this, which has long been a reality in many areas: Dead Internet - and this affects all industries that depend on this medium; without exception, this includes all entertainment industries that have ever existed. In other words: the entire cultural industry, which is doomed to die and is consequently dying.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ayn Rand was one of the best selling authors of the 20th Century, and she's probably the best known philosophers in US history.

She died broke.

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What does that add to the statement in the post? There are hundreds of thousands of such examples.

It doesn't change the statement: writers, artists, and all other creative professions are now in a much worse position than they have been ever before - and yes, disproportionate pay for even extraordinary achievements has always been been the case historically for these very important people. But with LLMs we have reached the point where it's not even enough for a dream scenario. There is no business model for this anymore.

There is no longer any money to be made because consumers do not pay for quality, but for mass and free content. The best example of this is the decline of journalism, which had always been financed mainly by advertising - this has not worked for twenty years because Google and social media platforms have completely taken over this business, which is why there is no longer any serious journalism today. It can no longer be financed because consumers cannot cover the costs, even if they wanted to, which is the case at all.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Basically, what you're saying is the philosophical equivalent of saying music is dead because people aren't interested in opera any more.

Try looking around a bit. A few years ago, Marvel Comics did a story line called "Civil War." The government asked all the heroes to register. Iron Man and Spider-Man said yet, Captain America and his allies said no.

Plenty of discussions of the rights and responsibilities of the heroes.

Or watch a show called 'Pluribus.' Or any oldie but goody called "The Prisoner.' Or 'The Good Place.'

Heck, the trolley problem is on the front page here every day.

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No, what I'm saying is that the people that draw the marvle comics, animate them or write the plot won't make a living from that anymore for much longer. It's really as simple as that. Why? Because they make their living creative work, which is great.

But they already earn their living more from autographs at conventions than from the payment for their outstanding work. That too will soon be a thing of the past, because Marvel will not be renewing their contracts - leaving these talented people out on the street because they can no longer sign autographs if they are neither authors nor illustrators, nor animators or whater.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 0 points 1 week ago

Look at OnlyFans.

A quick look shows that a few folks there are making a lot of money. $200,000 a year. Others make a good deal less.

That's always been the case with creative folks. A few will rise to the top, and the rest are going to be amateurs.

Fine dining didn't die when fast food was invented, and live music held its own even after recordings became a thing.

[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A lot of artists only received recognition after their lifetime because their works became a scarce resource that the rich could then use for circle jerking and tax breaks, and without any pesky living creator to have to pay or worry about doing things that put their investments at risk. It's been the rich ruining everything and compensating nobody all the way down.

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Yes, that's true, but until now, people could still make a decent living from scraps. That is no longer the case.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I would argue that Aaron Swartz is far more well known today than before his death.