153. What makes us human

I.

Citizen Kane was Orson Welles’s directorial debut¹. A masterpiece. His second film was The Magnificent Ambersons, based on the highly acclaimed novel by Booth Tarkington. The story follows the rise and fall of the aristocratic Amberson family.

Welles received a huge budget for what was supposed to be masterpiece number two, but during early screenings audiences savaged the film. The studio stepped in to prevent a potentially disastrous flop. The knife went in: scenes were reshot and cut, the ending was changed, and of the 131-minute film, 88 minutes remained.

“They destroyed Ambersons, and the film in turn destroyed me,” Welles would later say. “It was a better film than Kane if they had left it as it was.” No director’s cut ever emerged. The original print was presumably destroyed — in any case it has never surfaced.

I then read a provocative article in The New Yorker about a new attempt to restore the original film. With the help of — gulp — AI. British entrepreneur Edward Saatchi wants to restore the missing 43 minutes of the film using preserved scripts, photographs, and notes. Actors are to re-perform the cut scenes; then fake bodies of the (deceased) original actors will be superimposed on the footage and their digitized voices inserted.

Saatchi says he wants in this way to make right what the film industry did to Welles and Ambersons. At the same time it feels like a massive marketing stunt to push his new AI technology into the film industry. Opinions about the project are all over the place.

I don’t know what to make of it either. At the very least, it is a new chapter in the mystery that has surrounded this film for over eighty years. There is also a compelling comparison to be drawn between this megalomaniacal project and the reason the Ambersons come to ruin in the film. They prefer to ride in carriages rather than cars. They cling to the past and refuse to embrace the future². Saatchi places himself on the side of those who press on. The pioneers.

At any rate, the article prompted me to watch The Magnificent Ambersons. The potential bursts through the seams. There are extraordinary crane shots and long takes, and Welles experiments with new ways to film dialogue and capture shadow work. The young director’s talent unmistakably seeps through the cracks of this roughly cut automobile wreck.

II.

At the end of the Odyssey, in Stephen Fry’s retelling, the British author launches into an argument about artificial intelligence. It is about what makes us human and how the Greek myths hold a mirror up to us.

He writes: “In a world in which all our actions are governed by absolute data and information — in a sense, data and information are the gods of our world — we must, I firmly believe, continue to honor the power of the non-absolute: the power of myths, stories, ceremonies, ritual and symbols. I see myself in a thousand forms in the myths of the ancient Greeks: as fool, bumbler, lover, villain and — very occasionally — hero. I have never recognized myself in zeroes and ones and digital datasets.”

Fry compares the rise of (generative) AI to the story of Prometheus. The titan stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, to the horror of Zeus. For fire is a technological catalyst, writes Fry, the divine spark. “If humans possess fire, Zeus thought, they no longer need gods to worship and obey.” Fry sees in AI another such divine spark that could turn humanity into a mythological memory.

That is quite something. Perhaps slightly overstated. But I couldn’t help thinking of it when this week I read an interview with director Gore Verbinski (you know him from the first The Pirates of the Caribbean films). He is releasing a film for the first time in ten years, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, about the existential threat of AI.

Verbinski says in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter much the same as Fry, but in a more grounded way that I completely agree with. “Why is AI helping me write a song or tell a story? I don’t want it to breathe or fuck for me; I want it to solve cancer. Send some of that stuff through a black hole, let it do something we can’t. Let it dig a ditch; do something we don’t want to do. Why is AI coming after the essential things that make us human?”

PS.

Geese visited NPR for a Tiny Desk Concert. Naturally that video belongs in my blog. “Is this a ticketed thing?”, jokes Cameron Winter. “I thought it was only NPR-staffers here. And friends. NPR-staffers don’t have this many friends.”

Writer Cees Nooteboom died at the age of 92. He was beautifully portrayed by Thomas Heerma van Voss in his book De prullenmand heeft veel plezier aan mij. The text of what is probably the very last interview with Nooteboom is also online. Near the end the great author says: “I have given myself.”

A year and a half ago I shared a video on my blog by Cabel Sasser. He tells how he walks into a McDonald’s in Washington and finds a mural that nearly blows him away. In the video he recounts the search for the unknown artist behind it. A wonderful video. On Sasser’s blog there is now the full story. (And watch the video! It is fan-tas-tic!)

In a few weeks War Child will release a charity album to raise awareness for children in war zones. Various bands and artists have written exclusive tracks for the album. Already released is a new song by Arctic Monkeys and Cameron Winter is also contributing a song. This week a track came out featuring Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten, and Kae Tempest collaborating.

Nicolas Cage plays Spider-Man in the new live-action series Spider-Noir and I am completely ready for it.

The very first Dutch translation of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is coming soon. I never dared to tackle it (who does?), but actually feel like diving in now. The translation by Robbert-Jan Henkes, published by Koppernik, is called Eindeloos Vertier (1,176 pages).

You read blog №153, written in the week of 9 to 15 February 2026. Subscribe to my newsletter and you’ll receive it every Sunday free in your mailbox.