The AI Meaning Crisis: The Matrix, And Google Veo 3
(And Why Creative Philosophy Is the Cure)
Hey everyone,
You’ve seen the Google Veo 3 videos — they’re jaw-dropping.
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They made cinematic storytelling available to anyone with a pulse and a prompt.
AI is an incredible tool to leverage creative productivity —
I’m sorry if this has impacted your job. I was in the music industry when Napster hit, so I relate.
But there’s a much darker side coming with AI-simulated hyper-reality.
Trigger warning: this gets cynical first, and ends optimistically.
Hyper-Reality
We’ve entered phase one of hyper-reality.
We can’t tell what’s real — and what’s AI-simulated.
French philosopher Jean Baudrillard wrote about this in 1981.
He predicted hyper-reality would spark a meaning crisis in society.
His book inspired The Matrix.
The Collapse of Meaning
The foundation of meaning is trust.
If we can’t trust what we see and hear,
We can’t trust what we feel.
And meaning and purpose is all about feeling.
Meaning isn’t intellectual.
You don’t think your way into meaning.
You feel your way into it.
But you can think your way out of feeling.
Hyper-reality isn’t just a breakdown of how we see reality.
It’s a breakdown of our belief in reality.
I believe that societally, this is a critical, creative, philosophical inflection point—
🧠 Was The Matrix a Philosophy?
Jean Baudrillard’s book Simulacra and Simulation not only inspired The Matrix but also appears in the film.
Neo hides his illegal software in its hollowed-out pages.
Here’s what I anticipate we should expect in a late-stage capitalism hyperreal world:
Social media platforms roll out an army of secret AI avatar influencers with tens of millions of views to steal our attention and sell it to the highest bidders
The AI social media algorithms are going to perfect the systems of hacking our brains and mining our attention
Propaganda will hit record levels — most people are easily manipulated with hate and fear (see Trump and Brexit)
Capitalistic, political, and ideological manipulation accelerates to unprecedented levels
We’re living in a late-stage capitalist oligarchy
Where the elite own both the mainstream and social media.
Every intelligent neurodivergent person can see the manipulation we’re currently exposed to.
But we’re entering propaganda-on-steroids.
They’ll pump society with AI brain rot that keeps us stuck in cheap dopamine scroll holes that crush our ambition.
It is critical that we, as weird, ambitious, creative entrepreneurs, protect our attention at all costs.
This does not mean deleting social media, but being intentional with its use.
I deeply believe our ambition, potential, meaning, and purpose rely on our ability to have a ritual container as a sanctuary of focused, deep work.
🔥 This Is Our Wake-Up Call
We have a choice.
If we can’t trust the external world,
We must learn to self-trust.
Here’s my framework:
Simple. Imperfect. It works.
1. Create More. Consume Less.
Self-esteem comes from creating, not consuming.
Our self-worth is based on our productivity levels.
Not scrolling. Not watching. Not comparing.
Grow your business. Build an audience. Be more weird.
This doesn’t mean stop consuming —
It means being intentional with what you consume.
Read poetry and philosophy
Be more creative
Embrace spirituality
Collaborate with other creative souls
Allow limited social media brainrot time
Ensure your main consumption diet is wholesome.
Better creative inputs = better creative outputs.
2. Embrace the Anti-Scroll Hole
Doomscrolling is brain rot.
The algorithms are smarter than our willpower.
Don’t lie to yourself.
We need:
Body doubling
Ritual containers
External accountability
Not just for creative productivity —
For sanctuary.
3. Live a Creative Life (Philosophically)
This doesn’t mean be an artist — though that’s true too!
It means we are the creators of our realities:
Wake up
Question everything
Make weird stuff
Solve high-quality problems
Think sideways
Start a business or grow your current one
Level up awareness — see things as they are, not as they’re presented
Elizabeth Gilbert said it best:
“A creative life is where consistently, routinely, habitually, and constantly you choose the path of curiosity over the path of fear.
Not once. Not twice. Not a few times — but all the times.”
Every decision we make is creatively philosophical.
We all get in our own way by choosing the path of fear.
We are the creators of our own reality.
Being stuck in fear is to deny ourselves meaning and purpose.
Curiosity is the catalyst for meaning and purpose.
Why?
Because following your curiosity creates future outcomes that won’t exist if you stay stuck in fear.
With curiosity, you’ll fail more. Succeed more.
Laugh more. Cry more.
Love more. Hurt more.
But most importantly, you will feel more!
To live a life of meaning, we must live a life of curiosity, and reject a life of fear.
We are the creators of our own reality.
Therefore, we are the creators of our meaning and purpose — or our own meaning crisis.
✅ Done Club
We’re creating a space to reclaim our attention and follow our curiosity.
Most of life’s success is simply about showing up.
To be in control of our attention is the biggest competitive advantage in 2025 and beyond.
If you want to get to the top of any industry, control your attention, focus your creative work.
We love AI.
This isn’t us vs. AI.
It’s using AI to enhance our creativity and reality — not replace it.
✅ Done Club is:
A sanctuary for focused and consistent work
A place to rebuild self-trust and momentum
This is an experiment for every ambitious, multi-talented, creatively rebellious soul — ourselves included!
14 days of creative entrepreneurial focus. $1.
Choose curiosity. Choose meaning.
Create your own reality, before it’s created for you.
What have you got to lose?