Necrotic Scholarship: Algorithmic Solipsism and the Epistemic Collapse of the Digital Academy by Carvalho, Antonio instant download

Necrotic Scholarship: Algorithmic Solipsism and the Epistemic Collapse of the Digital Academy by Carvalho, Antonio instant download

The inexorable rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has precipitated an unprecedented crisis in the epistemological foundations of academia, one that threatens to render human-driven scholarship obsolete and destabilize the very concept of scientific truth. This article contends that AI systems such as GPT-4, Claude 3, and their successors – capable of generating citation-rich, methodologically intricate, and stylistically flawless research papers on any subject – have initiated a paradigm shift comparable in magnitude to the Gutenberg printing revolution, but with catastrophic implications for research integrity. By automating the production of contradictory arguments, synthetically “novel” hypotheses, and self- referential citation networks, generative AI has inaugurated an era of algorithmic solipsism, where the volume and velocity of machine-generated literature overwhelm human capacity for discernment. Through a synthesis of historical analysis, contemporary case studies, and philosophical critique, this work demonstrates that the peer-review system, academic publishing infrastructure, and institutional legitimacy of universities have been irreparably compromised. The resulting epistemological collapse – manifest in proliferating AI-generated paper mills, the weaponization of synthetic research by corporate and state actors, and the erosion of public trust in scholarly institutions – demands radical intervention. We argue that the ethical imperative to preserve the sanctity of knowledge necessitates the systematic closure of universities as presently constituted, proposing instead decentralized networks of empirical observation safeguarded from AI’s corrosive influence.