Today I look at colour (or the lack thereof) and where and why it is disappearing from our word and how our tendency towards a "sad grey beige" tonal singularity for economic and status driven reasons is comparable to AI aesthetic (and informational) singularity ahead, as in the future more and more prompt outputs will inevitably be trained on AI generated promo outputs... And how this illustrates a problem with optimising for a singular variable (resale value, click-baityness, attention, ROI, GDP, whatever) drives us towards homogeneity and towards literal and figurative dullness and anticompetitiveness. (I wrote a bit about this and the problems of pursuing the perfect at the expense of the interesting in my book, The Future Starts Now with Theo Priestley in my essay "In defence of imperfect information".)
(Yes, yes, I know the irony of all-black-every-day me talking about disappearing colour, but I swear my home and my child and my bookshelves are as colourfully clad and happily mismatched as can be. And black is *definitely* more of a colour than greige will ever be ;)
Have you noticed the greying out of brands, interiors and adverts?
Do you think appeal to the lowest (inoffensive) denominator via blandness is along-run competitive strategy for brands and businesses? or can embracing colour, and ambiguity become an asset again? (or is that too risky!)
Where else do you see self-reinforcing recursive patters tending towards "singularity points"?
How can we escape the "age of average" and remember that kids toys are meant for fun not for decor?
At Flux Trends we'll have more on the business #GenerationAlpha and what we’re doing to our kids and our spaceship Earth for you soon. In the mean time, if you enjoy these signals and thought starter questions, why share them with someone they will inspire or start an argument with?
Read more:
Sad grey beige children : https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7239467779013856043?lang=en
Where did all the colour go? https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/stories/is-color-disappearing
The age of average : https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average
A different sort of singularity (on "degenerative" AI) : https://venturebeat.com/ai/the-ai-feedback-loop-researchers-warn-of-model-collapse-as-ai-trains-on-ai-generated-content/
Boring, responsible white cars : https://www.consumerreports.org/consumerist/a-brief-history-of-car-colors-and-why-are-we-so-boring-now/
Quiet luxury, or lack of imagination and bravery? https://www.forbes.com/sites/biancasalonga/2023/04/12/the-rise-of-quiet-luxury-and-why-it-is-here-to-stay/?sh=7a41820c27ed
Degenerative AI and sad grey beige "luxury"