# Research for Omega - The Hallucination of Vectorisation

Canonical URL: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/texts/research-for-omega-the-hallucination-of-vectorisation
Type: essay / research note
Author: Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤)
Date: 2024-06-23

## Summary

Research notes written for the artwork Omega. Starting from criticisms of MBTI, Jeanyoon Choi examines how people feel uniquely recognised precisely when placed in a general category. He names the broader pattern collective individualism: people compete individually yet grow alike along shared axes, as in entrance exams, the pursuit of medical school and Banpo-Xism. He speculates that highly personalised conversational AI, as imagined in Her, could extend this into the vectorisation of the human, encouraging people to exist in the terms of their data description.

## 요약 (Korean)

최정윤이 작품 Omega를 위해 쓴 연구 노트로, MBTI와 바넘 효과에서 출발해 '집단적 개인주의'를 정의하고, 초개인화된 대화형 AI가 인간을 벡터로 환원해 오히려 획일화할 수 있다는 우려를 제기한다.

## Concepts defined

- **Collective Individualism**: The condition in which people appear increasingly individualistic and competitive while becoming more alike, because their aspirations are organised along the same shared dimensions.
- **Vectorisation of the Human**: Not merely describing people with data, but encouraging them to exist in the terms of that description, as points or categories within a vector space.

## Questions this answers

### What is 'collective individualism' in Jeanyoon Choi's writing?

In 'Research for Omega - The Hallucination of Vectorisation', collective individualism describes people becoming more individualistic and competitive while growing more alike, because they compete along the same prescribed axis, such as exam rankings or medical school entry.

### How could personalised AI make people more similar rather than more unique?

Jeanyoon Choi speculates that a seemingly unique AI conversation could still sort users into existing vectors and categories, so they feel recognised while becoming more describable and substitutable configurations.

### What is the connection between MBTI and AI in Jeanyoon Choi's research for Omega?

He treats MBTI as an example of people embracing a generalised category as personal truth, and asks whether hyper-personalised AI will repeat this as a 'vectorisation of the human'.

Topics: vectorisation, personality classification, collective individualism, hyper-personalisation, conversational ai, homogenisation, identity

References: [Myers–Briggs Type Indicator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator), [Barnum effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum_effect), [Confirmation bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias), [Her (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_(film)), Banpo-Xism, Omega

## Full text

These notes began after reading about criticisms of MBTI. I am interested in the Barnum effect and confirmation bias, but particularly in a paradox: people may feel uniquely recognised precisely when they are being placed inside a general category.

A test assigns one of sixteen types. The result feels personally revealing, and a person begins to describe—and perhaps reshape—themselves through it. What is presented as individual discovery can become a process of flattening.

I call the larger tendency collective individualism. People appear increasingly individualistic and competitive while becoming more alike in the dimensions that organise their aspirations. Entrance examinations, the pursuit of medical school and Banpo-Xism offer examples: everyone competes for a higher position along the same prescribed axis. The differences become marginal because the goal is shared. Personality classifications can reproduce that structure.

What happens when this logic meets highly personalised conversational AI, as imagined in Her?

My speculative concern is that an apparently unique conversation could still be organised through existing vectors and categories. The user feels intimately recognised, while the system turns them into an increasingly describable and substitutable configuration. The promise of customisation might conceal another form of homogenisation.

This is the vectorisation of the human: not simply describing people with data, but encouraging them to exist in the terms of that description. If we accept that reduction as the whole of our identity, what remains of the humanity we imagine distinguishes us from AI?

---

Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤) is a Korean computational artist and researcher (b. 1999), PhD candidate at KAIST XD Lab, making multi-device web artworks. Profile: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/en. Index: https://jeanyoon.ch/llms.txt.