NVN Wednesday: LEVERAGED BY BRAIN ROT

by Mark Danowsky

Following a public vote in which more than 37,000 people had their say, we’re pleased to announce that the Oxford Word of the Year for 2024 is ‘brain rot’… ‘Brain rot’ is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration”. —Oxford University Press, December 2, 2024

*

I remember the landscape 
before chatbots 
 
After all, it was
only two years ago 
 
My mind is a limited 
large language model 
 
I take in material
I share material
 
I forget if I took time
to synthesize the material 
 
My biases and missteps 
are not about extra fingers 
 
I fear The Paperclip Problem
less than I fear the race
 
This race has been trending 
towards the bottom 
 
We know major players 
but consider a dark horse 
 
It could all go sideways 
except for the 1%  
 
Meantime, we’re burning 
all available fuel 
 
The deafening buzz—endless 
noise on my mind
 
All I can talk about 
is what I consume 
 
While I remain aware 
I contain stories 
 
The storyteller in me
is trained by misdirection  
 
I mean the need to hold
irreconcilable truths 
 
While seeking the answer 
to some nebulous void within 
 
I know this brain rot
as a weak pulse 
 
I fear mediums 
and messages 
 
The troubling satisfaction 
of pulled attention 

My hacked mind 
knows susceptibility
 
Everything is content 
and I am a heavy user 

*

Mark Danowsky is Editor-in-Chief of ONE ART: a journal of poetry. He is the author of four poetry books. His fifth book Take Care is forthcoming from Moon Tide Press.