But as AI accelerates our ability to (1) generate, (2) manipulate, and (3) distribute information, this weird tension becomes even more pronounced. We're entering an era where the battle between content and context will reshape how all policy is created, communicated, and understood. Digital platforms and AI tools have created an environment where:

Information volume overwhelms individual capacity to process details , making simplifying frames more influential

Algorithmic curation creates personalized information environments that can reinforce certain ideas while hiding others

AI-generated content can rapidly produce and distribute compelling narrative frames at unprecedented scale

The collapse of traditional media gatekeepers means fewer institutional checks on misleading frames

The result is a landscape where the context provided for policies (like that’s my buddy Joe Rogan talking about this, let’s listen to him) shapes their reception more powerfully than their actual content. Thorstein Veblen's concept of conspicuous consumption matters here - the purchasing of goods not for their utility but for the status they display. In our digital economy, we're witnessing a shift to what might be called "conspicuous contextualization" - where value derives not from the content itself but from who frames it, where it appears, and how it's positioned.

All sorts of questions pop up here - do we develop economic systems that distribute the benefits of context creation broadly? Or will we see further concentration of power in the hands of those who control the dominant contextual frameworks?

And then the question becomes - well if economic systems get overly complex and confusing, it becomes that much easier to bend them to your will right? If democracy becomes tainted by lack of respect for truth and a force of context shaping, you can simply buy voters, like Elon Musk is - and that’s not great. It’s confusing.

People vs Algorithms

AI Winners and Losers

Kyla Scanlon • Studio Ghibli AI, Classified Leaks, and the Context Shift