Movies and all the multimedia technologies (YouTube, series, TV, cinema, …) are basically emotion manipulation. A narrative can become very effective through the context-free cropping of a picture, trimmed view of the timeline, and manipulative soundtracks that tune one’s emotion to exactly what the composer wishes. A movie is looking at a world view through the eyes of the narrator without judgments. One does not bring their sense of critique and fact-checking into a movie and accepts the world as it is (or how are they to go on watching Star Wars, for example?).

It is the basic assumption of a story not to ask it and hold it accountable. Yet, it leaves you with new beliefs and world views, because of how powerful that is. We are basically ill-equipped to deal with the high levels of emotions that are shot at us. That is also true for most other things that we consume today. Today’s POP music is filled with emotional triggers, and every single note in them is in such a way that overflows the emotional capacity of ours. This only results in a sense of overwhelm.

I find the classical music way “healthier” as its confined environment; the orchestra and all classical music require human and physical realities to shape it. You cannot use synthesizers and digital audio workstations; you have to perform with real humans in real places. This makes it human-level. That limit must be present in the media as well. Writing brings a certain limited environment to the play, and our writing skills become that of a good performer. How someone becomes a virtuoso.

I’m however contemplating what LLMs are going to do with this. Having a tool that can refine your writing and rhetoric to the highest level might as well mean that such abilities shall no longer be any indication of wisdom and skill. And if that becomes the case, measuring content becomes harder. Devising such things even harder.