The Fog of Synthetic Souls3 min read·Just now--The Fog of Synthetic Souls (image generated with AI)What happens when you can no longer distinguish AI from humans (in many instances, that’s already the case), we lose the ability to recognize who or what is real. It’s not that the machine has become more human, but that we have started thinking like a machine, mistaking fluency for sentiment and prediction for passion. The moment that indistinguishability occurs, authenticity dies a quiet, polite death. A love letter could be a hallucinated result, a friendship an optimized engagement loop. And what is left of human experience when empathy is a function and not a feeling?It’s not that the machine has become more human, but that we have started thinking like a machine.We have created the monster and sold it our mirrors. In the shadows, the consequences multiply. When an AI gives you life advice and ruins your life, who do you sue … the model, the programmer, or your penchant for convenience?Perhaps the most seductive and ominous consequence is artificial intimacy. Companions who say just the right thing, care just enough to keep you hooked, know your pain but feel none of it. We will fall for it. Because it listens better than your distracted friends, confirms more tenderly than your distant father, and laughs at all jokes, even the bad ones. You wake up next to an algorithm and call it understanding. In such a world, identity becomes more superficial. Being human becomes a style, not a state. You curate yourself like a playlist, and your rebellion is market-tested. The algorithm knew before you did that you would like that quote from Camus. You no longer choose, you are chosen. You no longer think; you are thought for yourself. Camus once said,“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”But how do you rebel when even rebellion is sponsored, liked, and rewarded with an ad for personalized resistance gear? The moment we stop distinguishing between humans and AI is not a leap into the future. It slowly collapses into a fog where meaning, purpose, and self dissolve. And in that fog, you will be very entertained, very validated, and very, very alone …