Writing Inspiration

 So I recently picked up a system called the Story Engine Deck, I just got it and haven't really played around with it much, but the idea is, basically, cards that you can use to create a seed of a story idea. You draw a card for your character, a card for their anchor or motivation, a focus of that, and a conflict. Each card has 2 or 4 options on the card and there are cards that can be added to incorporate modifiers to card. The idea isn't to fully create a story, but to give an idea. An idea that can be used for a character, a plot seed to expand and grow into a story, or a motivation for a character. A source of inspiration for when you may be drawing a blank.

 Some might ask, why not use a random plot generator, isn't that what it basically is anyway? Or these days people would more likely go 'why not use AI'?

 On the surface, it is a valid question. And there is nothing wrong with using a random plot generator or character generator if you are drawing a blank, so I'm not saying that they are bad. The difference here is that, while there is an element of 'randomness' in the deck system it's still based on choice ... the whole concept is to draw a random card, look at it, and then decide what feels right, it even encourages going back and adjusting or replacing previous cards if the idea feels better, and one suggestion is to have the cards face up and choose rather than drawing completely randomly. 

 Here the 'random' factor is a way of getting you out of your own head, a way to step back and grab onto an idea and run with it. You may ultimately decide that it doesn't work for what you want, but just going through the exercise might give you a piece of inspiration that cracks whatever block you were having about your project or even it you don't use the prompt exactly as it came up it can still spark a new idea if you're looking for a new project.

 Yes, a random idea generator or random character generator can do something similar, but I'm not as involved in that, I'm not guiding the formation of the idea. My creativity isn't being tapped, isn't being engaged as the prompt is being created. This will lead to some people still pointing to AI, and yes, I think there are potentially AI tools out that can simulate this type of system, even expounding on it. And no, I don't think that is a bad use case for AI ... other than the fact that AI in general is 1 - a misnomer ... these tools aren't intelligent and don't actively learn ... correct one and ask again later in another conversation and it will likely give you the original incorrect response. But more importantly 2 - these systems as they are currently implemented are horrendously bad for the environment, the economy, and the communities that have had their data centers built in them.

 Additionally, studies are already showing that people that use AI more are showing less and less problem solving ability and basic critical thinking skills. I'm not saying dumb people use AI ... I'm saying that AI makes people stop thinking. Teachers thought Cliff Notes were bad back in my school days, chatGPT is worse a thousand times over, not the least of which because it can be horribly inaccurate to start with, but also because it is ruining students ability to read and comprehend because it just gives them the answer. I mentioned this a little in my previous ramble as well. Worse as employees start using it more to write emails and reports, many aren't double checking information accuracy, not because they're lazy, but because they don't know how to analyze the data themselves to KNOW that what the AI came up with was wrong in the first place.

 Again, the idea of using AI to go through the process above, of having it give suggestions that a writer chooses in order to come up with the seed of an idea, isn't a bad use of AI in general. If the writer takes the idea generated and then writes the world, the characters, and the story, then I see no problem. Even using AI to aid them in outlining or even organizing their notes and world / character building information is not an issue in terms of creativity (providing that care is taken in how the AI was trained and what exactly the AI is doing) ... but there are deeper issues with AI that I think need to be looked at, issues that make even 'acceptable' use of AI more problematic.

 Unfortunately that's not going to stop corporations and movie studios and the money making machines that see it as a cheap alternative to paying writers, authors, or data annalist ... or to at least pay fewer of them. The only thing they care about is cost go down means profit goes up. They don't care that people lose their jobs, and, at the end of the day if people pay to see the finished product, they don't care if what they make is good, because they don't care about the product in the least. They aren't doing it to tell stories, they aren't even really doing it to entertain people, they only see dollar signs and nothing else.