My post the other day auto-deleted half and I think I exed out in annoyance so maybe I’ll try again- my prediction for the future of media. It’s as unnerving as it is inevitable.

Lately I’ve been sampling what I would term “interactive cinema”. The French studio that created Heavy Rain made something similar a few years later except this time they used professional actors.

What’s unnerving is that eventually graphics are going to be indistinguishable from reality. So with VR you’re essentially going to be part of a “live drama”. This I think is going to be the future of art.

That force field physicist says it’s within the realm of possibility to “read minds” with neuroscience, to know someone’s mood by hooking up to their physical brain. So I expect something like this to be incorporated into these live dramas too. Instead of having to manually select an option from the dialogue tree, your mood will be “read”, rendering an instant response that you don’t have to verbalize yourself.

Levinas can help us understand what is going to happen with all this technology. When you see someone’s Face you are emotionally engaged with them. So NPCs in these live dramas are going to be treated as real people and they’re going to trigger real emotional responses. It’s going to be easy to forget that you’re in a “fiction” at all.

So who do you think is going to create this media? Probably multibillion dollar corporations. These hyper-realistic NPCs are going to lead you to convictions that the corporations want you to hold.

My enemies will be pleased to know that I got the worst possible ending in that Heavy Rain game. And it auto-saves, so I’m just stuck with all the characters I got emotionally-attached to having the worst possible fates. That’s my point here though- even someone who’s constantly reflective like me is pulled into immersion pretty easily with interactive cinema. Enough to “ponder morosely” the fate of those characters the last few days. And Heavy Rain is WITHOUT VR, and WITHOUT hyper-realistic graphics.

So these live dramas of the future are, among other things, going to be experiments in unprecedented levels of manipulation.

That’s just the cynical side at least. They also have the potential to be the greatest art in history.

Let’s put another spin on it

Any “genres” I’ve discussed are going to be formatted into this live drama medium- that is, including the more cerebral ones.

Remember this concept?

There could be live dramas about the disciplines and genres as a whole.

Think maybe My Dinner with Andre style.

Another twist to consider

Isn’t this just gluttonously greedy? All the most futuristic science and futuristic art rolled into one?

What is that term, “high maintenance girlfriend” – I feel like the equivalent of that in the realm of culture. When are you going to give me all these things, that’s the only way I’ll be happy.

I discussed other aspects of this gesamtkunstwerk here. TLDR, entheogens should be used in these live dramas as well.

Another thing- Heavy Rain should’ve SMELLED like rain too.

I told you before that game was “messin’ with me” – there are ways to push that to the extremes.

I just want to play one of these RIGHT NOW. I want to play it in MULTIPLAYER mode, because that would be a great bonding experience. Preferably with someone you can distinguish from an NPC ahaahahahaha

“It’s not really ‘multiplayer’ if your friend seems like another one of the NPCs in the live drama.”

Let’s just go into some subtleties here for accelerationist purposes

Video games operate in defined spaces, however, they do not have a defined frame. They can pan the camera, destroying what would be a perfectly stylized shot that is set up in films.

There’s a balance to be struck between an artist’s vision and the player’s freedom.

On the other side of this, I expect the corporations to make their vision SEEM like freedom. I.e. you THINK you’re interacting and “live” when the reality is the creator is goading you along in every single “choice” you supposedly make. And the freer you feel the more you’ll be vulnerable to manipulation.

They’ll use the Face of the NPC to orchestrate your emotions as it were. The lilt of the voice that will pull your heart strings.

I remember the exact time when I was a kid when I learned the concept of “the moral of the story”. An adult taught me what it meant after watching some movie. I was like “Ohhh yeah, that IS what is in movies!” The Mammonites will be emblazoning upon our minds the moral of the live drama. And when it’s live you’ll think you thought of the moral yourself.

This is both exciting and dangerous

Choosing which factors from each medium best serves the purpose of an interactive experience is key to creating something impactful. Combining the special properties of video games and film could lead to experiences that transcend anything experienced in one’s personal life

There, I think that’s most of what auto-deleted.