By Leaps And Bounds

[poliphilo]

 AI gets better and better- and there's more of it. You need to make an historical reconstruction for your Youtube channel? Forget the actors in wigs, the stiff, stately home theatrics; just build it all in the computer. I watched a short clip about Agricola's invasion of what is now Scotland- and Agricola looked like a real person with actual human feelings, the battle was epic, as was the footage of the Roman fleet oaring its way round a rocky, misty coastline. Apparently the vogue word for this kind of thing is "slop" but there was nothing sloppy about what I was seeing. There was evidence of human intelligence shaping it, proper research having gone into it, artistic sensibility crafting it. Really, this was the next best thing to owning a Time Machine.

And there are proper little movies being made as well. Check out The Patchwright from Gossip Goblin- a studio run by Zack London- an American living in Sweden. It's a 20 minute movie set in a dystopian society. The story is not only fascinating but philosophical, the visuals are hyper-real, the world-building detailed and immaculate.  Think Blade Runner- only better. This ain't slop, it's art. And significant Art at that. The big studios, the big actors are taking an interest. Soon there'll be full-length movies of this quality- and people will be making them on their phones....