Technology Didn’t Kill the Creative Industry. We Did.
- Roy Sharples
- Apr 6
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Complacency, not code, is the true enemy of imagination.
We once made fire with our bare hands and called it art.
We painted with ashes. We sang to survive. We carved truth into stone and beat rhythm from bone. Creativity was a necessity — a defiance of chaos, a rebellion against silence.
Now?
We double-click templates.
We A/B test originality.
We let the feed decide what’s worthy.
And we wonder why the muse no longer visits.
This is not a murder story.
There was no crime scene. No villain in the shadows.
Just a long, slow fading.
A collective forgetting.
A quiet, willing surrender to convenience.
We did this.
We — the poets with backlogs, the designers with deadlines, the dreamers who traded doubt for data — we let it happen.
Technology didn’t kill creativity.
We did.
We blamed the machine because it’s cleaner than blaming ourselves.
We told ourselves AI was the thief, stealing jobs, stealing voices, stealing souls.
But truthfully?
We handed it the keys.
We welcomed the automation of imagination — because it’s easier than being brave.
Creativity has never been safe.
It was never meant to be scalable.
It was never designed to be efficient.
It bites. It bleeds. It breaks rules and builds new worlds.
Yet here we are:
Making “content.”
Optimizing for engagement.
Mistaking repetition for resonance.
Replacing wild expression with brand-safe polish and calling it art.
History repeats like a drumbeat.
The printing press didn’t kill storytelling.
The camera didn’t end painting.
The synthesizer didn’t destroy music.
AI won’t bury creativity — unless we let it.
These tools don’t eliminate artists.
They challenge them.
They stretch the edges of what’s possible.
They dare us to remember why we began creating in the first place.
The real threat isn’t AI.
It’s apathy.
This is a Manifesto for the Misfits and the Unreasonable
1. Make Work That Frightens You.
Stop polishing. Start provoking. Create the kind of work that might get rejected. Or banned. Or remembered forever.
2. Return to the Wild.
Wonder is not in your workflow. It’s in the unexpected. The unanswered. The unprofitable.
3. Dance With the Machine — But Lead.
Use AI like a fever dream. Feed it madness. Twist its logic. Make it say something human — or something it never meant to say.
4. Likes Are Not Legacy.
Your work should outlive the platform. Make it timeless. Make it dangerous. Make it matter.
This Is the Great Rewilding
We must un-domesticate creativity.
Tear down the walls.
Break the grid.
Forget what sells.
Make what saves.
Let your work bleed again.
Let it offend mediocrity.
Let it whisper to strangers across time.
Creativity is not a campaign.
It’s not a calendar slot.
It’s not your personal brand.
It’s a force.
It is rebellion.
It is survival.
It is the last honest thing we have.
So pick up your pen.
Plug in your synth.
Spray paint the question.
Stitch truth into code.
Design like you mean it.
Speak like you’ve run out of time.
Because here’s the unfiltered truth:
The machines are not coming for your creativity.
They’re just waiting for you to remember how to use it.
Read the Book. Stoke the Fire.
by Roy Sharples
How to make the invisible visible by lighting the way into the future.
Founder of Unknown Origins.
Champion of originality in an age of imitation.
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Unknown Origins Creative Studios All rights reserved © copyright 2025
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