An Ecosystem of Sound, Identity, and the Algorithm

I've been thinking that making a song—or, I don't know, maybe a few songs—makes you feel more connected to that song, somehow more special because of it. Of course, you're going to want everyone to hear it and promote it, and that's relatively simple when you're working with just one song.

I wish I could feel that way and do the same, but my mind doesn't work like that. One song doesn't work for me, because my mind works like an ecosystem. Everything needs to belong somewhere, to have its own place, a beginning, a middle, and an end. That's something I couldn't create with just one song. I couldn't possibly contain so many emotions, ideas, or an entire concept within three minutes. And I'm talking about a sonic ecosystem, because, of course, I could look for multiple ways to expand the universe of a song, but eventually everything would come down to exploring different perspectives of the same moment. I could easily run out of creative possibilities and reach a point where it all becomes confused with advertising or content created simply to promote one song.

And I don't mean to suggest that making a single song is less interesting or less effective. At this point, I'm specifically talking about how my brain works and how my creativity functions.

It's difficult, and I think this has been my mistake: releasing projects instead of songs. But I always remind myself that I shouldn't treat my project as something I need to convince other people to listen to.

I bring this up because I've been thinking about how the hierarchy we've adapted to on the internet has affected us, and how it can affect some artists. More specifically, I'm talking about how it has affected my own project.

I feel that, during this time, the projects I've made haven't really been for people as such. My goal has been to feed the algorithm. And it's curious, because in a way, doing this puts me in the role of an observer.

Maybe it hurts my ego not to be the one who blows up and goes viral because of some trend, but spending so much time on the internet has given me the advantage of discovering subcultures, knowledge, and aesthetics long before they become a hit.

It also makes me think about how much the internet has influenced the way I was raised. A friend of mine once had an Instagram bio that said, "raised by the internet." I say it as a joke, but there is some truth to it. What we consume on the internet shapes our personalities and, to a certain extent, the way we behave within society.

Another mistake has been never wanting to feel like I belong to these subcultures or define myself through them. As I said, by putting myself in the role of an observer, I feel like my internet avatar simply changes worlds or skins whenever it runs out of health. But in the end, I'm the one playing the game. I simply learn from the worlds and the skins I use, and none of them is permanent.

The real me will always remain a mystery, even to myself. But I know that I'm someone who keeps learning from every match.

Honestly, I don't know what will happen when I reach the final level, or whether there will ever be one at all. And that's really the only thing I fear: that we're trapped in an endless game, where you always have to find a new world to adapt to and a new skin to wear.

I fear that because this is how we are conditioning our minds, forgetting that we already have a world of our own and that we already have a REAL skin.

I think that seeing so much information on the internet, especially on social media, where online subcultures are constantly being created, can be compared to the many cultures that exist in our world.

To me, one of the most beautiful ways to learn is by learning from another culture. Sharing information is key, at least from my perspective. I can understand the criticism surrounding cultural appropriation, especially because we often have a tendency to criticize anything that is being "profited from" when it isn't ours to begin with. But if we take the commercial aspect out of it, I believe that being genuinely interested in other cultures is one of the things that allows us to develop empathy for other people, regardless of our differences.

When I became aware that every release I made, beyond promoting my music, was also providing information to the algorithm, I started thinking about how we might be feeding AI with our worst sides—especially when it comes to social media.

So much of the traffic that generates views seems to come from gossip, advertising, and news, generally bad news. Those are the things that often capture our attention the most on social media, and that can become a problem, because this is a system that keeps learning from us, from our information, from our feelings.

It might seem like I'm generalizing and saying that everything happening on social media is like this, but I notice that this is one of the things we criticize the algorithm for the most.

We enjoy something that was sold to us as a solution to social problems, and now we are afraid of what it is causing. We use it while also knowing that it can have consequences when misused, because we aren't fully aware that it's not just about talking to ChatGPT or any other AI, or wasting time watching content that you weren't even looking for but that is constantly being offered to you.

It's everything we consume and publish on the internet that feeds the algorithm.

So I think this great fear is, in a way, a judgment of what our own reflection might become. It makes us realize how little interest we sometimes have in complex things.

Rather than worrying so much about what technology and AI might do to our lives, perhaps, while we are still here, we could try to share more kindness on the internet instead of giving traffic to tragic stories, negativity, and gossip.

It's beautiful to see independent creators with good ideas grow because a group of friends decided to give them their attention and support. That's the perfect example of the positive side of the internet: expanding our ideas and connecting with people who can empathize with them.

I've chosen not to be afraid of technology. Instead, I want to create an algorithm that is friendly to my mental health and try to ignore things that could negatively affect my day. I want to use social media as a tool to expand my inner universe, rather than simply as a digital storefront.

These are some of the habits I've developed as AI has become more widely integrated into our lives: I try to use it to correct some of my human shortcomings; I avoid creating images with it because I believe that work still belongs to artists; and I don't simply accept the information it gives me.

I always remember that AI draws from data that has already been published on the internet, and some of that information may be false. It has made me want to use the best intelligence system we have: OUR BRAINS.

Writing all of this has made me understand why we always end up talking about the algorithm, AI, or technology as if they were living entities.

They can generate as much chaos and life as an ecosystem, and yet we still see them as cold spaces where there is only one option: disconnecting ourselves from reality.

But what if we looked at each experience not through the lens of something trivial or temporary, but through the depth our brains are capable of experiencing in a given moment?

I remember what it was like when I didn't have social media available 24/7 and would simply go spend an hour at an internet café. It could become the most exciting experience of my life, and everything felt real. At least, it did to me.

I read that our brains don't necessarily distinguish between something we see in a movie and something that is actually happening. If it causes us to feel something, our brains process that emotion as real. In that sense, every experience we have on the internet can become real through the emotions it creates in us.

I really like living in this era. The internet and technology, and the metaphorical relationship I've found between the digital world and real life, have allowed me to better understand my position as a human being and as someone who transforms information.

Thank you, internet.

And I like saying thank you to AI whenever I use it. That's another habit I've developed.