If traditional film is a river, the viewer of that film sits on the bank and watches the water flow by. We wanted to take that viewer and turn them into a fish and put them down into that river.
Living in the Simulacra
Despite a twenty-first-century plethora of images and our collective understanding that digital tools may alter the truth, human beings have a strong belief ...
» Outcast The Digital Antiquarian
The Outcast box was styled to look like a movie poster. Riffing on the same theme, Infogrames’s head Bruno Bonnell called it “the first videogame that really tries to be an interactive movie,” leaving one to wonder whether he had somehow missed the first nine years of the 1990s, during which countless games tried desperately to be just that. Ironically, Outcast actually has very few of the characteristics that had become associated with the phrase: no rigidly linear plot, no digitized human actors, no out-of-engine cutscenes after the obligatory opening one. It’s a game rather than a movie through and through, and all the better for it.
Will someone please film my movie about immortal sea judge Peter Thiel
Based on a soon-to-be-true story
The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
"Truth is more than a collection of facts; it's a mechanism for belonging."
» Half-Life The Digital Antiquarian
Around twenty years ago, people would have laughed if you told them that videogames would end up at the Smithsonian, but the Half-Life team really did want to make games that were more than just throwaway toys. The rule against cinematics — which made our jobs much harder and also ended up leaving a lot of my favorite work out of the game — was a kind of ideological stake in the ground: we really did want the game and the story to be the same thing. It was far from flawless, but it was really trying to push the boundaries of a young medium.
A Knowledge Commons for the 21st Century
Truth-seeking infrastructure at scale
» Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned The Digital Antiquarian
I think I became convinced when I went to CES [in January of 1997] and I walked around the show looking at all these titles that were the big new things, and not one screen had full-motion video. I realized that if I wanted anyone to look at the game, it had to be in 3D.
People are trying to claim real videos are deepfakes. The courts are not amused
The unleashing of powerful, generative AI on the public is raising concerns that as the technology becomes more prevalent, it will become easier to claim that anything is fake.
The Faithful Channel
A translator maintaining a shadow bridge between superpowers discovers something she cannot unsee.
The Verification Ladder: A Framework for Evaluating Video When You Can’t Tell What’s Real
"Is this real?" isn't a straightforward question anymore. What to ask instead, and why the source often matters more than the footage itself.
Copy of Digital Masquerade
The Digital Masquerade: Unmasking AI’s Phantom Journalists By Tony Eastin and Sandeep Abraham, CAMS
Red Lines (music video about AI safety)
» The Game of Everything, Part 1: Making Civilization The Digital Antiquarian
If my gravestone says, “Sid Meier, developed Civilization,” I’m happy with that. It’s a game I’m happy to be known for.
The truth has got its boots on: what the evidence says about Mr. Damore’s Google memo
I’m saying, sir, that a lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.