Friday, January 04, 2019

Gods And Monsters

I think it’s a pity that there are almost no characters in literature or movies who are higher than humans. (Gods, angels, aliens, AIs...) As in way higher power, way higher awareness, way higher wisdom, way less ego... Instead they all act human. Jealous, petty, selfish, competitive... To me that’s just very limited imagination.

 (They wouldn’t have to be the main characters, of course, it’s clear that the main character needs to be human-like for a story to appeal.)

 William Gibson and Iain M Banks have some of the rare exceptions, in both cases they are super-human AIs. (In Banks’ case, extremely super-human, more like gods. But benevolent.)


Good art is a balance between the familiar and the new. 
The all-familiar is not interesting. The all-new is not attractive.