Authenticity, I Guess

I've always had this appreciation and intense sense of wonder every time I become aware of something beautiful in media, especially in games.

It's usually something small that contributes to a much larger world, that really makes it feel like it could exist. Like a piece of armor in The Lord of the Rings or the tiny fictional clothing brand logos in the Splatoon games. I just stop and think "Wow, someone got to make that" or "It was someone's job to think of that", and it feels so special to get to experience something that someone got to express through their passion.

Lately I've become a lot more guarded with that feeling. Any time I come across something neat, the moment gets interrupted by "...but what if it's AI" and by default it just loses any meaning to me. Which is obviously completely unfair, there's still people creating beautiful meaningful work, you just have to do a lot more weeding.

I don't want to lose that wonder, so I'm trying to get a little closer to the projects, artists, or any creative thing I care about and really get to know the things that I know to be authentic (using my best judgement, I guess?).

I thought I'd have more to write about this, but I think it's a complete enough thought, so I'll just post it as-is.