Communal Texts & Industrial Knowledge Work

I keep hearing a concern that correct and grammatically impeccable text is treated as “AI slop”, work-slop, or whatever mockery is used for it. Clearly and structurally presented ideas get caught in AI-spam filters, or people do not even bother to pay attention when a text contains a list. The criteria behind that judgment vary from person to person, but the consequence is this: a letter or text is dismissed automatically. I, too, turn away from empty text that, even when written by a person, is really a waste of scarce life tokens.

But lists and emotionless instructional texts are very important. Because of them, healthcare, aviation, and, at a personal level, going grocery shopping have improved by leaps and bounds — a shopping list is a small example of a communal text. An apartment association noticeboard steers residents through everyday life with clear messages. In short, these texts are instructions that organise ordinary life. They are unequivocally specific, exactly the kind today’s language models write with confidence. Facts can be supplemented, but the style stays true to the spirit of the age. Metrics, targets, validations, and other home-office buzzwords.

The fruits of industrial knowledge work, or communal texts, are made quickly and are exactly as lifeless as they ideally should be. The slightest hint of emotion is sent back by the approval cycle as an error. A good instruction is a pure fact without feeling — like the gravitational constant in the case of bodies falling in a vacuum.

At this spring’s Prima Vista, an analogy between AI-generated text and industrial agriculture was made. A tractor does the hard work in the field, and we need not get our hands dirty, yet we must move so that our bodies do not become frail. The Põhjala community garden and other green patches are a hobby: we use a hook to take potatoes from a box, and each tuber has its own name once it reaches daylight. Our bodies and minds need something to do. Freedom from hard farm work gave us free time, and the retreat of dull mental work promises the same. We now have time to do something else, but what? We can write poems rather than lifeless manuals or code onto silicon. We can consider the trace a snake leaves on stone.

P.S. What if I let AI write instructions for using a spoon (before I finished the sentence, I had to try it)? I asked it to shorten the first version because, theoretically, the printing costs of the information leaflet in the package and human attention have to be optimised.

""" Quick Guide: Spoon

Purpose: Transport liquid and soft food from bowl to mouth.
Golden rule: The concave side always faces up. Convex side up = 100% loss of working capacity. Use:
Grip: Hold the handle between your thumb and forefinger (not in a fist).
Scoop: Dip the spoon into food, filling it to about 80% capacity.
Move: Raise it horizontally to your mouth without tilting your hand.
Empty: Put it in your mouth, close your lips, and pull the clean tool out. Warning: Not suitable for turning screws or catapulting peas across the table. Wash after use. """

Fortunately, agents do not need to be spoon-fed. Sometimes they think for themselves about what comes next. That is what scares us most — table manners are changing.