In a thought-provoking analysis of modern media, the author draws striking parallels between contemporary technology and the dystopian visions of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. The central focus is Huxley’s Brave New World, specifically the concept of “feelies”—government-sponsored, sensory-overload films designed to appeal to the most basic instincts of a genetically-engineered populace. These feelies represent a form of high-tech “slop” that pacifies the masses through shallow stimulation, effectively replacing genuine, soulful art with low-budget, pornographic-adjacent entertainment. The author argues that this literary prediction has manifested in our reality through the rise of AI-generated content and political manipulation.
A primary example of this modern phenomenon is a recent Wired report detailing how Sam, a 22-year-old medical student in India, generated thousands of dollars by creating fake MAGA influencers. Using AI, Sam constructed personas like Emily Hart, who does not exist but successfully mirrored MAGA talking points to exploit American political discourse. While the author criticizes the toxicity of such ragebait, he notes the cleverness of a foreigner exploiting the United States‘ internal divisions to fund his own education. This exploitation succeeds because the audience “wants to believe,” a psychological vulnerability that has been cultivated for decades by traditional media outlets. The author posits that Fox News laid the groundwork for this AI takeover through its own “real-life AI” strategies. By utilizing a rotating cast of indistinguishable blonde hosts and the infamous “leg chair,” the network essentially trained its audience to respond to sensory triggers and ragebait. Hosts like Ainsley Earnhardt, Shannon Bream, and Martha MacCallum are presented as interchangeable figures in a system that values aesthetic consistency and anger over intellectual depth. This environment has turned viewers’ brains into “mush,” making them easy targets for Sam’s AI scams. The news anchors now face an existential threat: they are no longer just competing with younger humans, but with deepfakes that never age and never demand a salary. The discussion extends into the broader creative industry, where the author examines the threat AI poses to the arts. While French director Mathieu Kassovitz predicts a future of AI superstars and Reese Witherspoon encourages women to embrace the technology, the author remain skeptical. Referencing his academic work on Star Trek: Voyager and its holographic Doctor, he argues that while AI can master the mathematics of form—such as William Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter—it cannot replicate the “soul” that makes art enduring. Shakespeare remains the gold standard because his work requires a human struggle that a machine cannot experience. Ultimately, the summary concludes that AI content is the 21st-century version of Huxley’s feelies. It is low-effort, state-sponsored or commercially-driven slop meant to provide a temporary “tingle” before being discarded. Whether it is a fake influencer from India or a bot-written novel, these creations lack the substance of the human experience. The danger is not that AI is better than humans, but that audiences, conditioned by networks like Fox News, have become content with the soul-less stimulation of the leg chair.
