The Invisible Specter: Do We Still Choose? — An ATF Inquiry
The Invisible Specter: Do We Still Choose? — An #ATF Inquiry
Artificial Intelligence doesn’t knock. It doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t ask for permission. It simply integrates — into your feed, your playlists, your shopping cart, your search results. You don’t see it, but you feel its presence in every digital choice you make. And most of the time, you don’t even realize it’s there.
Two weeks ago, i published The Invisible Specter, a reflection on how AI silently influences our digital lives. The response was quiet — maybe too quiet. That silence is telling. It mirrors the very nature of the subject: invisible, ambient, accepted without resistance.
We scroll through curated feeds, convinced we’re choosing freely. But the algorithm has already decided what’s worth showing. It knows how long we linger on a post, what we ignore, what triggers us emotionally. It doesn’t need to ask. It already knows.
In hospitals, AI assists in diagnoses. In education, it adapts learning paths. In commerce, it predicts demand and adjusts prices. These systems are efficient, but they’re also opaque. They execute without empathy, without dialogue, without accountability. And yet, we trust them — or at least tolerate them — because they work.
But what happens when efficiency replaces ethics? When personalization becomes manipulation? When the invisible hand no longer just guides, but governs?
This isn’t a debate about whether AI is good or bad. It’s a question of awareness. Of agency. Of whether we still own our decisions, or merely approve what’s been pre-selected.
🪞 This survey isn’t about technology. It’s about perception.
It’s about how we navigate a digital landscape shaped by systems we didn’t design and barely understand. It’s about how each member of #ATF sees the role of AI in their own online life — not through theory, but through experience.
💬 Challenge for the curious:
If you dare to look the specter in the eye, leave a comment with:
- 📌 A recent moment when you felt a digital choice wasn’t truly yours.
- 🧠 What made you realize it? Was it a recommendation, an ad, a “perfect” suggestion?
🎁 The most lucid or unsettling answers will be featured in a future post.
They may even be rewarded — with #ATF tokens, #Ecency Points, or something… less predictable.
This isn’t a question about technology.
It’s a question about control. Or the illusion of it.This isn’t just a poll. It’s a mirror.
Vote, comment, challenge the premise — or defend it.
Let’s see what the Archives Token Funds community really thinks.
🗳️ Poll Question:
Is artificial intelligence already shaping your digital decisions — without your explicit awareness?
Choose the one that feels most true — even if others apply. That discomfort is part of the point.
writing competion i like it : )
I won't dive deep into how the world work on this one, i will only cite two examples but really important ones.
Youtube, yes i choose to search TATU Not gonna get us but the 20 following songs were just a playlist choose by youtube, and each time i get on the youtube home screen i can "choose" what to watch but choose in a pool of different videos that have been tested to know which one was making the most clicks in the end maybe youtube already knew on what i was about to click.
Another small yet efficient exemple was instagram, i was just looking at my friends and then it apeard pretty clearly but i don't choose which stories i watch with the most attention Instagram does for me by putting the stories from the people in interact the most at the begining and the other stories at the end which make me more likely to watch all the stories. In the end this open the question of what do we really choose to see and what is choosen for us ? We can't know it's not physically infront of us we have to close our eyes and trust the system.
Thank you so much, 😊 @memess, for your very timely insights about YouTube and Instagram! This is exactly what I wanted to talk about: how often do we think we choose 100% freely what we see, when, in fact, the options are predetermined for us and… pushed from behind by an invisible algorithm?
A simple like or a minute spent on a clip “trains” the system to serve you the same category of content, narrows your exploration area and ‘reinforces’ the filter bubble. Even the “Recommendations” section is a pre-configured package to maximize the time spent in the application, not necessarily to offer you what you really want.
More alarming is that the platforms can “listen” to conversations near the microphone and adjust their ads and suggestions after learning from us, without our knowledge or explicit consent...... It caught my attention that you voted that you use AI for strategic purposes – investments, forecasting, optimization. It's an example of how we can reverse the role and use invisible forces to our advantage, but be careful not to be pushed in a predetermined direction again.
"More alarming is that the platforms can “listen” to conversations near the microphone and adjust their ads and suggestions after learning from us, without our knowledge or explicit consent" i'm still not sure this is an info or intox, but we are definetly getting spied on private messages or any other internet activity.
"It caught my attention that you voted that you use AI for strategic purposes" -> I use it for all in fact, ai is a tool a wonderfull one, is it influenced ? Porbably, but the time saved when searching something ect is crazy, AI is a perfect listener to give feedback on everything (except social relation, i wanna manage that my self) it can think to many more angles than us and thus blindly rejecting such a tool is a bad idea