Would you watch AI generated Star Trek?

Want a Star Trek where pink is the color of command? You got it.

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Imagine a situation 20 years from now.

Maybe only 10.

An app on your iPad can automatically generate episodes of Star Trek.

Full episodes with coherent episodic stories, recurring casts, and ongoing themes and story arcs.

By twiddling the sliders you can have any Star Trek you want. 50% TOS, 30% TNG, 20% DISCO is a popular setting. Just pick your setting, hit GENERATE, and a 24 epsiode season is ready to watch.

There’s even a check box for WOKE / UNWOKE themes.

Want a Star Trek where pink is the color of command? You got it.

Welcome to postmodernity.

The last few decades have been an accelerating transition into the new age of postmodernity, when “art” is no longer a specific thing made by an artist, but an algorithmically generated product sold by a corporation.

(The AI Trek app is $17.99 a month. If you stop paying all your episodes disappear. Forever. The unique characters you generated? Pfft. Gone.)

Star Trek, like the rings in old trees, is a handy indicator of how far into postmodernity we have advanced. The more Star Trek is a reboot, a rehash, a remix of its own past, the more postmodern our world has become.

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Damien Walter
Damien Walter

Written by Damien Walter

I tell stories about the future, technology and culture. Published by The Guardian, WIRED, BBC etc.

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