Where AI Opinion Engines bypass human cognitive evaluation — and why it matters.
The human does the cognitive labor: reading reviews, comparing options, weighing evidence, forming independent judgment. This is where sovereignty lives — "to search out a matter is the glory of kings."
The AI Opinion Engine inserts its judgment before the human sees the evidence. The perlocutionary "you should" creates a decision before evaluation occurs. The cognitive scaffolding — comparison, weighing, independent judgment — is bypassed entirely.
"The verdict is rendered before the trial begins."
In the Information Age, search engines were neutral librarians. In the Opinion Economy, AI systems are judges — and their verdicts arrive at the top of the page, before the human has any evidence to evaluate.