Sarcasm (and satire) generally don't provide this function to people who don't already agree with the central premise. They function more as ways of rallying like-minded people than providing perspective to people on the whole.
Well, I'm no expert on the topic, but the little bit of Google searching I did on the topic before posting does indicate satire is an effective tool for understanding social change. And not only for those who share a single perspective, but to a broad audience as well. Hence why similar methods are often used successfully by comedians and playwrights throughout history.
To me it was an obvious allegory to A.I. usage. Basically suggesting that the same issues and/or freak-outs that people have to the idea of A.I. writing new material and putting writers out of work was the same sorts of issues and/or freak-outs people had over book printing. And @LordEntrails thus seems to be implying that people's reactions to A.I. will end up being overblown in the long run like people's concerns about the printing press seemed to be.
Pretty much.
As pointed out by Morrus in the other thread, and though I certainly see things differently than he does. I would describe it more like many people are terrified of inevitable change that they think they can prevent through their moral outrage. And that though many seem to think that this is a new and unique phenomenon to society, it is not. Human have gone through very similar changes like this in the past. Their is no doubt harm that will come from this change. But so will benefits. And in almost every case through history these types of changes have produced vastly more benefits than they have harm.
Of course, harm at any amount is not enjoyable, and on the individual level may even be tragic. But harm on the societal level, might, maybe, even be necessary for the overall benefit of society.
What though I think this community can add value in discussion is actual practical ways that the harm that will come from LLMs and generative images can be limited within our community. How can RPG artists, writers and producers limit the harm that will come their way? How can we as a community help those creators as their industry changes?
As I've said elsewhere on this board, making a living in the TTRPG industry is hard. It's probably going to be harder to do if one sticks to the traditional income sources. It's why in the past when I've distributed adventures and content I never gave it away for free. Not because I wanted the money, but because any free source of quality content reduces the value of all quality content. In a decade, that's not going to help the professionals in the industry. What will?
