Soma, Sora & Our Brave New World

A piece dedicated to the future and AI. 👾

Author

Bill Kerr
February 21, 2024

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Soma, Sora & Our Brave New World

When OpenAI dropped their latest product last week the internet lost it’s mind. And for me, the most seminal moment in AI. Being a voracious reader and a big fan of dystopian classics like 1984, The Road and Brave New World, I thought - ‘Oh Soma, how fitting, it is certainly a brand new world we are living in.’ Problem was, the name wasn’t Soma — it was Sora.

For me though, the damage was done. I couldn’t un-think what I just thought. And the analogy is strong. Bear with me while we explore it.

The future?

Soma you see, at the least in the world of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, was a drug that filled the user with pleasure. Happiness in a pill.

But the problem was that in Brave New World, Soma provided a temporary escape from reality and created an illusion of happiness, but it did not address the underlying issues or provide true fulfilment.

Soma.

The drug numbed emotions and suppressed individual thoughts, leading to a superficial sense of contentment. I take no definitive stand on the current state of world affairs but if you take a step back and look at the two biggest announcements in tech the few weeks; it’s Apple’s Vision Pro and Soma. The future is here. And I am … uhh … here for it?

A narcotic drug which produces euphoria and hallucination, distributed by the state in order to promote contentment and social harmony.

- Google’s definition of Soma

For today though, let’s not go too deep and philosophical on Soma, Vision Pro and if we are de-evolving at a the speed of Starlink. I wanted to quickly bring to attention that fact that we may be hurdling down the information superhighway, with no brakes, on a one-way ticket to a shit-show at the fuck-factory … and now I have done that. Now we can move on.

I’d like to spend some time actually just marvelling at the tech that was released, that tech being Sora by OpenAI - as it is truly mind blowing. So here beneath are 20 or so of my favourite Sora creations, along with a smattering of commentary in between. The wunderkind Sam Altman has done it again.

Sora of OpenAI

How far we’ve come

I still remember where I was sitting the day Jeff Han first uploaded his AI art collection from early Midjourney. It was around 18 months ago. The dystopian oil painted versions of Nike, McDonalds, Netflix and more blew me away. I actually love (!!) this style. It’s like a visual hallucination.

This spooky Midjourney art, the launch of ChatGPT and last week with Sora were the three things that grabbed me and shook me to my core. Paperclip day is coming.

Credit; Jeff Han.

Another from Jeff.

But seriously, 18 months have passed from a water painted, acid trip of imagery, to Sora today, which is in some cases indistinguishable from real life.

Take a look at the famous Will Smith eating spaghetti footage (and Will’s new version from this week) and you can see how far we have come in just 12 months.

This begs the question. Where will we be in 5 years? For now, back to Sora…

More highlights from Skynet Sora

And what we can expect in the future

So … future much? My assumption is that in next decade you log on to Netflix, or a challenger that has eaten it’s lunch and search prompts via your text-to-media function and tell the platform what you want to watch.

People have already made MVP versions of this very idea on the internet. Look at this two minute Lord of the Rings by Wes Anderson trailer. I’d pay to see that.

The one thing we do know is that the future is here. And it’s weird and getting weirder. So sit up, strap on your Vision Pro, drop a couple of Soma and enjoy ride. Welcome to our brave new world.

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