When the web came around, it got called the end of gatekeepers like traditional publishers and media houses. Anyone could publish. All they needed was talent. No one could prevent people from publishing.

Now, in the age of generative AI tools, we appear to have come full circle. Anyone can publish, even if they don’t have talent. So we seem to be in need of gatekeepers again.

This can be the moment where traditional publishers and media organisations make a comeback. But it’ll require them to understand the game and their role in it intricately. To understand generative AI, where it belongs, and where it doesn’t. To know where to draw the lines, and where to erase the lines.

Often, those of us on the right side of history take pride in the fact that our worldview is powered by empathy and that that is what the other side is missing. This makes us feel good but also, weirdly enough, it makes us think that those against us are not human enough to be empathetic.

Empathy is a fundamental human characteristic. It is what enabled human beings to come together as tribes and stay together as civilisations. The cruelty and apathy we see around us today is, weirdly enough, a result of empathy. Albeit, misdirected empathy.

I have loved Star Trek my entire life. So this is not me taking a piss at it. I am simply sharing some things about the nature of my favourite franchise that come close to bothering me occasionally. The legacy of colonialism leaves deep scars and often, these scars extend into parts of us that sem to have little to do with “politics”.

Free speech is important. But there is a reason some people don't think so and are okay with curbs on it. Think about it. Who needs freedom of expression? Whose work will stop if free speech was not a guarantee? The answer is arts students, artists, writers, scholars, journalists etc.

These are people who, throughout their academic careers have thrived on a free exchange of ideas and lively discourse. These are people whose work requires questioning and challenging the status quo. This happens among science students too, but in the Indian education system, for the most part, science education is little more than rote learning — memorising principles and regurgitating them in examinations.

The Humanities on the other hand, cannot be taught without students in a classroom raising hands and differing with the teacher. It's kind of part of the deal. The Indian middle class not only tells its children to not question authority, it also tells them to not go into the Humanities. The overlap is not coincidental. It's part of a larger picture which has to do with open support for demagogues, hatred of intellectuals, and contempt for social workers whose work necessitates showing privileged society a mirror.

One of the first things that happen as a result of you being appreciated even a little as a writer is that people want you to teach them how to write like you. This is, on the one hand, understandable. We all look at skilled people and wish we could do what they do. On the other hand however, it creates in the writer a false sense of expertise. Because writing and teaching writing are two entirely different things.

Most writers don't know anything about teaching. Most writers will not be able to teach you anything. Many of them are honest enough to add disclaimers such as "this is not a writing manual, it's just how I do things". Some writers who are teaching writing aren't that honest and sell their personal routines as manuals for others to follow. The funny thing about this is that I am not even sure if these writers know that they are being disingenuous.

Perhaps they got so many requests from people to teach them that they decided they were experts. Perhaps they really do think that they have hit upon some kind of golden equation that can turn anyone into a writer as good as they are. Perhaps they are simply looking to monetise their skill and giving their audience what they want. Regardless, it's a slippery slope.

Superheroes "save the day" and bring things back to "normal". But we don't often stop to consider what normal means. Sure, a giant monster rampaging through a city is not normal. But before the monster was even on the horizon, the city was in a state that the superheroes were apparently okay with. In fact, some of them actually benefited from it.

Before the monster came, and after it was vanquished, the city was home to inequality and oppressive practices. The rich superhero, who spent billions building tech that helps him fight monsters was okay with it. The mystic with the power to alter reality never tried to alter social realities and give minimum wage to those who are supposed to look skywards and cheer for flying men when they punch rampaging monsters in the face and cause them to tumble backwards and fall.

Why is this? It's because we, as readers of this superheroic literature, are okay with this "normal" as well. It's because we, with all our privilege, either relate with the privileged superhero or aspire to be them. We are okay with some definitions of reality being stretched but not with others.

Summary

In this episode, Vimoh explores the decline of interest in the Star Wars franchise and the rise of YouTube as the dominant streaming platform. He discusses how the attention economy affects the quality of cinema, leading to a crisis in storytelling. Vimoh reflects on the nostalgia for 90s cinema and the pressures faced by filmmakers in the current digital landscape, ultimately questioning the future of storytelling in an age driven by fast content consumption.

00:00 The Decline of Star Wars Interest

02:58 YouTube: The Dominant Streaming Platform

It seems knowing is not important to us. We have evolved to feel. And this makes me feel things. Listen then.

A rant about me reducing my social media footprint and about the nature of my content creator burnout.

The meaning of meaning, gleaned from the Netflix reboot of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

I find some people blaming free speech for all the misinformation and propaganda around us. I think this is misguided and needs to be broken down.

Many of us don't realise that even in our scientific outlooks, there remain traces of our former religious outlooks. This is why many atheists have a reverential attitude towards science, which is actually just a method.

Because social media tends to be a machine that churns out "experts" and because I would appear to be one of them, I got to thinking about our relationship with the idea of authority and how sometimes it gets unhealthy.

Support the podcast at patreon.com/vimoh and you can email me at vimohig at gmail dot com

I have been reading a very old science fiction novel written apparently by a petrol pump and it triggers me in all the wrong ways. I wanted to whine about it. So I did.