By: Matthew Lee-Smith, Garrath T. Wilson, and the Poly Collective
Part of State of Responsible Tech 2025, Generative Things
Lee-Smith, M., Wilson, Garrath T. (2025). Exploring Diverse Forms of “Generativeness” Through Flash Fictions. In RIOT 2025, State of Responsible Tech – Generative Things (pp. 55-62). Stichting ThingsCon Amsterdam
https://thingscon.org/publications/riot-2025/riot-2025-exploring-diverse-forms-of-generativeness-through-flash-fictions/
Abstact (generated):
This contribution challenges the dominance of foundation-model-based generative AI by presenting three speculative fictions that explore alternative modes of “generativeness” beyond data-intensive machine learning. Drawing on design fiction and critical speculation, the authors question the resource-heavy, homogenizing logics of GenAI, while foregrounding generative systems rooted in analog computation, mathematical elegance, and embodied interaction. The first story, Shrimp Jesus in Your Bathmat, envisions a world where consumer objects are saturated with decaying AI models, critiquing the “enshittification” of both the internet and physical products. The second, Were Elephants Real?, stages a conversation between a human and a collapsing AI archive to probe the epistemic fragility of recursive training and loss of referential truth. The third, Unboxing a M.U.S.E., introduces an analog generative device that invokes emergent behavior without relying on training data, suggesting new pathways for creative computation and inspiration. Across these vignettes, the authors argue for a more pluralistic understanding of generation—one that values friction, material diversity, and cognitive engagement. This work contributes to responsible technology discourse by reclaiming generativeness as a broader cultural and computational possibility beyond the confines of GenAI.