Preserving Meaning in an Age of Algorithms and AI

New technologies not only surveil and collect data about us, they also change and alter the way we make or preserve meaning, including aesthetic meaning. Accordingly, the ways we consider, research, and educate aesthetics will have to adapt, at least insofar as it keeps a new range of technological dimensions in mind. To help imagine such dimensions, this paper examines the opportunities and challenges of technologies offering new ways of creating things while also nudging and “hypernudging” our actions. Such developments may initially seem trivial but they are changing our relationships with one another and with ourselves. After a brief, largely factual discussion of how technology is disrupting habits to extract data, some impact on decision-making autonomy is presented. Next, Albert Borgmann’s work is utilized to better understand how these new technologies fit his account of devices and so affect skills, practices, and meaning. Next, Dewey’s position is considered to see how contemporary technologies affect inquiry, memory, and art. Finally, there is brief consideration of the potential for technology to affect empathy, which also affects the foregoing aspects at a fundamental level. The essay concludes with a brief summary of the concerns presented.