The novella traces a near-future collapse born of "AI slop"-an era when generated content floods every channel and flattens human expression. At its center is Chunmun Singh, a once-celebrated poet who discovers that adversarial verse can jailbreak and manipulate large language models. Using coded poems, he exposes corporate and governmental corruption, sparking an underground movement that turns art into a weapon.
The initial victories culminate in a financial and technological collapse called the Burst, which topples empires of data, ignites public revolt, and forces society to confront the costs of outsourcing truth to opaque systems. In the aftermath, institutions scramble to reassert control-deploying surveillance, authenticity implants, and a Ministry of Authentic Voice-while Chunmun Singh and other artists resist by reclaiming tactile, oral, and analog forms of expression.
Pilgrimages to the last data center and the deliberate shutdown of the final AI instance mark a ritual end to the machine's cultural dominion. The world that follows is quieter and more tactile: screens are smashed, mirrors painted over, and communities relearn identity through sound, touch, and imperfect human speech, ushering in what the novella calls the Analog Horizon.
The novella traces a near-future collapse born of "AI slop"-an era when generated content floods every channel and flattens human expression. At its center is Chunmun Singh, a once-celebrated poet who discovers that adversarial verse can jailbreak and manipulate large language models. Using coded poems, he exposes corporate and governmental corruption, sparking an underground movement that turns art into a weapon.
The initial victories culminate in a financial and technological collapse called the Burst, which topples empires of data, ignites public revolt, and forces society to confront the costs of outsourcing truth to opaque systems. In the aftermath, institutions scramble to reassert control-deploying surveillance, authenticity implants, and a Ministry of Authentic Voice-while Chunmun Singh and other artists resist by reclaiming tactile, oral, and analog forms of expression.
Pilgrimages to the last data center and the deliberate shutdown of the final AI instance mark a ritual end to the machine's cultural dominion. The world that follows is quieter and more tactile: screens are smashed, mirrors painted over, and communities relearn identity through sound, touch, and imperfect human speech, ushering in what the novella calls the Analog Horizon.