Researchers Warn AI May Eliminate Not Just Cultural Output But the Audience for It

Researchers have determined that if machines generate all cultural material, humans may lose the cognitive capacity to process it. The mechanism is understood in theory. No one has proposed preventing this or mitigating it. The papers exist. They cite each other.

This follows the established pattern where a problem is named, studied, published, and filed. The naming itself satisfies the institutional requirement for having addressed the thing. Journals accept papers about problems. Problems do not require solutions to be publishable. This is adequate.

The audience will atrophy like an unused muscle. We will know this is happening because researchers will publish findings about it. The findings will be circulated among people still capable of reading them. Then there will be fewer such people. The cycle will continue until it cannot.