Jul 9, 2026 · 1 hr 38 min · 10 segments
We live in an age of rampant tribalism and knee-jerk reactions, and discussions surrounding AI generated media is no exception. I have been fairly apprehensive about this emerging technology up to…
Michael CaineGuest
Josh DawesGuestAndrew SnyderHostHello and welcome to Mythic Mind, where we pursue wisdom on the paths between primary and secondary worlds.
As with any hot button issue today, the sides tend to get pretty polarized on this, especially online, which is where many of us spend a good bit of time.
I don't know what real people are like in the real world, but as far as in this space, Things tend to get really tribal about this, where on one side, you've got the group of people who are going to call anything generated by AI or with AI, they're going to call it slop, right? No matter what it is, no matter how beautiful it is, what kind of storytelling is behind it, they're going to call it slop.
It's simply... a new instrument in the same basic artistic endeavor of storytelling and producing beautiful things that people have always been engaged with.
I think that a lot of this tribalism really comes down to knee-jerk reactions based off natural dispositions, where on one side, you've got the people who are just very wary of change, especially such a rapid change as we've been seeing through AI.
The remarkable difference in what it's able to produce in just last few years is astounding.
Of course, it's only going to continue at probably greater and greater speeds moving forward.
One of the tests for AI progress has been that Will Smith eating spaghetti video where you go back a few years and this is abstract monstrosity.
And as a university professor and someone who's been teaching in the humanities for decades, oh, I don't know, between the classical private school up through university, I don't know, 12, 13 years, 14 years, something like that.
I've seen what that looks like for writing in very real time as the essays that I've been reading and grading.
And so, you know, I've been somebody who's been very hesitant about what AI does and what it does to human aspiration.
But that being said, I want to be somebody who's really thinking through this rationally and not just having knee jerk reactions.
I've kind of softened a little bit over time as I've been more reflective about it.
And I brought in a couple of guests to have that conversation with me, because it's something that I want to continue to work through, because I think it's important for Christians, for people who want to think clearly, to be involved in these conversations because things are going to move forward with or without us.
And so I think it's important for us to know what our relationship with this emerging technology is.
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Hello and welcome to Mythic Mind, where we pursue wisdom on the paths between primary and secondary worlds.
As with any hot button issue today, the sides tend to get pretty polarized on this, especially online, which is where many of us spend a good bit of time.
I don't know what real people are like in the real world, but as far as in this space, Things tend to get really tribal about this, where on one side, you've got the group of people who are going to call anything generated by AI or with AI, they're going to call it slop, right? No matter what it is, no matter how beautiful it is, what kind of storytelling is behind it, they're going to call it slop.
It's simply... a new instrument in the same basic artistic endeavor of storytelling and producing beautiful things that people have always been engaged with.
I think that a lot of this tribalism really comes down to knee-jerk reactions based off natural dispositions, where on one side, you've got the people who are just very wary of change, especially such a rapid change as we've been seeing through AI.
The remarkable difference in what it's able to produce in just last few years is astounding.
Of course, it's only going to continue at probably greater and greater speeds moving forward.
One of the tests for AI progress has been that Will Smith eating spaghetti video where you go back a few years and this is abstract monstrosity.
And as a university professor and someone who's been teaching in the humanities for decades, oh, I don't know, between the classical private school up through university, I don't know, 12, 13 years, 14 years, something like that.
I've seen what that looks like for writing in very real time as the essays that I've been reading and grading.
And so, you know, I've been somebody who's been very hesitant about what AI does and what it does to human aspiration.
But that being said, I want to be somebody who's really thinking through this rationally and not just having knee jerk reactions.
I've kind of softened a little bit over time as I've been more reflective about it.
And I brought in a couple of guests to have that conversation with me, because it's something that I want to continue to work through, because I think it's important for Christians, for people who want to think clearly, to be involved in these conversations because things are going to move forward with or without us.
And so I think it's important for us to know what our relationship with this emerging technology is.