Intentionality in an Age of Slop

Crossposted from babbo.dev/intentio. To experience the piece in its more autological, intended form, please visit there. A Manifesto for the Intentional Internet"And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off."— C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942)Fish (Still Life), Paul Cézanne, 1864. Art Institute of ChicagoAuthor's note: The internet is rotting, and the miasma is infecting us, its inhabitants. Declensionist narratives, though, by themselves, are not cures. The issues are structural, and so must the solution be. What follows is a diagnosis of what went wrong and an introduction to Intentio, my project for a more intentional web.I. The Quiddity of SlopSlop has been the word du jour over the past year.[1]Both the Economist[2]and the American Dialect Society[3][4]named 'slop' their 'Word of the Year' for 2025. The term has been used to describe everything from the bizarre faux-Christian 'shrimp Jesus'[5]images which briefly flooded Facebook, to the sludge-like interchangeable fast-casual meals derided as 'slop-bowls'.[6]However, there has not been a succinct description for the quiddity; the essence of, 'slopness'. It has a phenomenological character people can intuitively feel: Potter Stewart's test of "I know it when I see it,"[7]seems apt. Yet I believe we can do slightly better. To put it concretely, slop is something created or consumed without intention.[8]Melencolia I, Albrecht Dürer, 1514. Minneapolis Institute of ArtImagine Albrecht Dürer's Melencolia I mater