Bells & Machines

I've maybe let this one brew too long but I wanted to lay out my thoughts on generative AI. Does it belong on this blog, which is mostly about TTRPGs and game design? Yes.

TLDR: I don't like generative AI and I'm going to take a long time trying to explain why by talking about Bloodborne.

Bloodborne has an obtuse multiplayer feature. In most games, opening up a session and inviting players to join you is done via a menu. It makes sense to at least try to simplify a complicated thing. Bloodborne (and actually all of From Software's "Souls" games) doesn't do it this way and instead uses in-world items. It takes a complicated thing and makes it more complicated. If you've played the game, this is pretty on-brand.

Here's how it works: Players can open their world to collaborators by ringing their Beckoning Bell. Players who are open to collaboration signal this by ringing their Resonant Bell. The Beckoner does not know who they are calling out to. Likewise, the Resonant Bell-Ringers don't know who they are answering. Neither the call nor the response cares who hears them, so long as they might be heard. And of course they might never be heard. It's an indirect, unreliable and anonymous process that, nonetheless, connects people.

Bloodborne (2015, FromSoftware), image from 
https://www.bloodborne-wiki.com/2015/03/co-op.html

This disjointed call and response is a bit like what happens when you make something and put it out into the world. And by something I mean anything like a story you wrote or a photo you took or a game you made. You don't know who will find it. Maybe no-one will. Of those who do, you don't know who will like it. You don't know who it will resonate with. Maybe no-one.

But maybe someone will stumble across this thing you made and realise with astonishment that this is speaking in their language, these are shapes they recognise, this is a song they feel like they already know. They resonate with the thing and, though you might never meet or even know this has taken place, they've resonated with you.

Why is that important?

It's important because you are you. There's no one else like you! You have a unique "you-ness" comprised, to a massive extent, by the thoughts in your head. These are a product of an unquantifiable and unreproducible series of events and circumstance (time, place, experiences, influences etc) peculiar to you and only truly known to you.

No one can look inside your head and see your thoughts. So in order to share them with anyone you have to go through a process of expression. There are lots of different forms of expression for you to choose from. You might even be expressing something through your choice of method! But whatever form it takes, the goal of expression is the same: You are taking a thought that was in your head and trying to show it to another person.

Even via the seemingly simple method of conversation, this is not easy. You have to choose words to represent your thoughts and say them to the other person. You've no way of knowing for sure if what you've said and how you've said it means the same thing to them as it did to you. So you might go back and forth, you might agree or disagree but generally what you are striving towards is understanding. When that has been achieved, you might just have performed something incredible. You might just have shared something of your "you-ness" with the outside world.

All of the above is a very laboured description of the act of communication. It's my hope though that describing it like this conveys my belief that communication is a creative act. Humans are social animals, communication is necessary to our survival. It's a creative skill that we practise daily, so what I'm trying to say here is that humans are also creative beings.

I'm also trying to say that this is what art is. It's not fine art, it's not classic literature, it's not a symphony: It's everyday human stuff. It's people trying to put something that was in their head out into the world in the vague hope that it might be understood. The Beckoning Bell seeking Resonance.

And if and when that resonance miraculously happens, there's the connection. To a time and a place that existed. To a real live person who made whatever this thing is. What an amazing thing this is that we can do - we can reach out to one another across centuries and vast distances of space. As long as art survives, not even death can stop us from reaching out to one another.

So with all of that in mind what, then, is the point of art that was made by nobody? That expresses nothing? Connects you to noone?

None whatsoever.

If we outsource creativity to AI, we are giving up our voice. We are giving up on communication with and understanding of one another, our thoughts imprisoned and unknown, our inner selves doomed to solitary confinement.

I would like to continue existing outside of myself. I I want my world and the worlds of others to remain open, always, to cooperators. So I will continue to ring the Beckoning Bell, and continue to seek resonance.

-Till next time!