Read 2023 edition paperback.
Review
A New Dark Age is informed by the same techno-sceptic viewpoint that finds its calling in counteracting the pervasive and blind techno-optimist spirit of the age. Thus, Bridle occupies the same space as Evgeny Morozov, Hito Steyerl, and Ian Bogost, but he writes with less acid and, at times, more patience. Like Steyerl, Bridle writes as an artist, though it appears only in small ways in his opinions on technological topics.
Bridle’s book contains many interesting narrative fragments that are linked with a wide variety of technological systems. Notably, he is not only interested in information systems but, like Kate Crawford in her book Atlas of AI, considers the material concerns of technology essential. In doing so, he paints with a rather large brush. It is not always clear if his narrative vignettes are simply engaging in their own right, as tangentially lubricating prose, or if they are essential to our understanding of this supposed ‘New Dark Age’. In any case, the reader comes away from this book with a greater appreciation of the interconnectedness of modern technological concerns, again recalling Crawford. The analysis of his New Dark Age is designed to be a wake-up call for us all.
The overall thesis is compelling: we are at risk of being strangled by the complexity of new systems, overrun by the speed of information, and overwhelmed by the volume of this information. As Bridle writes, “More information produces, not more clarity, but more confusion.” The new systems are faulty, opaque, secretive, remote, massive, and largely outside the reach of popular governance. Bridle’s book is a comprehensive survey of the contemporary technological landscape and the interrelatedness of these systems. He focuses on the many failures of these systems and how modern people often fail to successfully object to unproven technological solutions to the problems of technology creates.
The updated edition was published in March 2023, including a new epilogue addressing the latest advances in image-generating AI. A piece for The Guardian entitled The stupidity of AI was adapted from this addendum addition, discussing the history of image-generating AI. Bridle’s identifies the dangers of corporate ownership of AI infrastructure, their built-in coded bias, and comments briefly on the aesthetics of the strange art they (currently) produce. It is timely but necessarily limited in scope and aged quickly, the fate of almost all writing about AI.
As an artist themselves, it is perhaps somewhat surprising that the impact of technological ‘innovation’ of AI in art is not comprehensively discussed. When their own work is mentioned, Bridle describes these projects exclusively in terms of their political effect. That is, the aims of the art are discussed, but art itself is not considered as a subject of discussion; there is no consideration of theory, either in art practice or function. This is in stark comparison to, for example, Steyerl or Ben Davis.