Anemic Identity

March 28, 2026

The flatlined soul.

Marathons are being held 140 years since the first car.

Running is human. Bring able to run long distances has had a direct contribution to our survival as a species. I celebrate this fact every time I run. The modern world does not demand much running from us, yet I find running to be a wonderful thing to do.

The modern world offers a seductive shortcut for almost every human struggle: the ✨ button. I am averse to outsourcing my most personal and intellectual labor to algorithms. This was out of fear. Fear that a machine would put words in my mouth, sometimes more eloquently, at all times faster. Fear that my own mind can output no more than a statistical prediction of my next word. I believe one should experience this fear. It is a sad thing to concede one’s agency without a fight, which seems to be a trend amongst the mindless adopters of this technology. Face the terror that is accepting your limits and suddenly AI is not so scary.

Detail is not a limit. Because humans are not together, expressing oneself comes with friction, no matter how universal the medium may be. Such friction results in blemishes we deem to be imperfection, but ought to appreciate. AI, generative or otherwise, is efficient. When we allow this efficiency to replace the often-messy, necessary struggle of genuine expression, we cannot end up with the same result. The tax on speed are cut corners. Eroded away are the pores, leaving a glazed surface that can’t breathe.

Vulnerability is not a limit. Intimacy requires vulnerability. Accepting an anti-aliased version of yourself as your spokesman bypasses the neural encryption that incorporates your distinguishable identity into your words. What point is there in saying words if said words are not yours? Purely logically, there is none. We live in times where we consume more media than the message that’s meant to be carried through the medium. All parts of a medium barring signal is noise. Protect yourself by using AI to speak, you are contributing garbage to an already awful cacophony of static.

Perhaps the reluctance to practice forthright presentations of one’s own views is the result of the hostile discussion environment with an addiction to witch-hunts. The freedom of association ironically effects in everyone wanting to be part of the same team. Naturally, people will flock to the language model varnish, seeing how there is no better tool than AI to achieve complete conformity. Such a hegemony is exacerbated by the fact that machines are learning from other machine-generated content.

Many repeat the idea that generative AI should be treated solely as a tool. To them, dismissing a creation if AI had something to do with its production is akin to interrogating your chef what brand of pot he’s used. Sure, I’d be upset if someone did the same to me. Too often, however, our chefs are microwaving ready-made meals. AI isn’t a better or worse tool. Tools accelerate processses. AI introduces a completely distinct process—one that’s usually all-in-one—for better or worse. It is in this difference in processes that consumers lose the nuance of human creation. The degree to which it happens is determined by some factor of disparity between the traditional and ‘revolutionary’ practices.

It’s important to note that my opinions do not dismiss AI as useless. I hope this is clear despite the very shallow reasoning in each of my paragraphs. Let AI be used everywhere! I could not care less. In fact, I believe framing the transition to AI as capitulation is stupid. However, no matter how much we indulge in AI, I refuse to concede our innate gift of bringing something into existence. We ought to preserve the act of creation for it is a beautiful thing. One as important as the ability to run. Practice the craft of crafting! Making is human. Being able to make is the reason we are alive as a species. Celebrate this fact every time you realise your ideas. The modern world does not demand much expression from us, yet I find it a wonderful thing to do.

Content on sanalog.net is made by me. It does not host any AI-generated content, though it may reference some. Content on sanalog.net meticulously created and constantly iterated. It will have mistakes, but they will be human mistakes.