Nobody Reads Provenance
"Was this written by a human?" is a substitute question, asked when people don't know how to judge what they're reading anymore.
No reader feels moved by a sentence because of its origin story.
They linger because something in it recognized them.
Resonance has never been about authorship. It has always been about alignment.
"This looks like a human wrote it" is not praise. It's an admission that nothing else can be said.
Most writing fails long before AI enters the room because nothing is at stake except filling space.
Humanizing tools promise safety. They pad sentences with warmth. What comes out is the literary equivalent of a firm handshake and a blank smile. Readable, pleasant, gone before you reach the next paragraph.
The real divide is not human versus machine. It's writing that tries to be seen versus writing that tries to say something.
When everything is text, origin is not a filter. Recognition is. And recognition has never cared about the source.