liminent

/ˈlɪm.ɪ.nənt/ | adjective

Etymology

A portmanteau blending liminal (from Latin limen, meaning “threshold”) with imminent (about to happen) or eminent (prominent), with phonetic similarities to luminescent.

Definition

  1. Hovering on the very edge of a profound transition; the internal state of being on the verge of a realization, discovery, or breakthrough before it becomes visible to others.
“The ink still wet, the poem carried a liminent weight—a quiet revolution resting on the desk before the world awoke.”

Voices

Pro-AI

“You show me a new tool. I want to get my hands on it.”

— Steven Soderbergh

“Those guys don’t make movies — they’re doing a pitch deck.”

— Matt Stone

“I like to call it experimentation.”

— David Lynch

“He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling.”

— Mercedes Kilmer

“We succeeded because we didn’t know.”

— Nikolaus Summerer

“They were enamored of 3D, which to me was the passing fancy.”

— John Sturges

“It was much more like acting in a Broadway play.”

— Casey Affleck

“The process starts with human intent and human direction.”

— Oliver Scholl

“AI will never suffer from bipolar disorder and autism like me and other creative people.”

— Diplo

“They can be in any form, but we need to tell more original stories.”

— Steven Spielberg

“We have to just be friends in some dark way.”

— Sandra Bullock

“People will care more about human creators, not less.”

— Sam Altman

“The innovation is going to come from the filmmakers.”

— Bryn Mooser

“AI can write you excellent imitative verse; it cannot write you Shakespeare.”

— Ben Affleck

“AI filmmaking is about refusing the default.”

— Gossip Goblin

“I completed an 80-minute feature for $360.”

— Rahi Anil Barve

“The real work still lies in intention.”

— Shakun Batra

“I’m not sure why we would want to use AI if we can get a much better performance out of an actor.”

— Dylan Golden

“It’s just a special effect. It’s no different from other special effects.”

— Peter Jackson

“Cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old.”

— Martin Scorsese

“A new aesthetic.”

— Ron Howard

“It is an equalizer.”

— Huang Jianxin

“The dead deserve to be witnessed.”

— Ash Koosha

“Not simply tools of innovation, but vehicles for deeply human storytelling.”

— Jane Rosenthal

“The best way to develop tools that empower artists is to work directly with them.”

— Demis Hassabis

“It won’t look anything like the prompted generation that people feel uncomfortable with.”

— Scott Belsky

“There’s nothing you can do about it. That’s progress, it’s the future.”

— George Lucas

“Movies are being made by people who make movies. AI provides them with better tools to make them even better.”

— Ted Sarandos

Anti-AI

“There is an empty center that needs to be filled.”

— Harrison Ford

“Silence is an essential nutrient.”

— Richard Cytowic

“Their real estate is their face. Their real estate is their body.”

— Jason Newman

“Every user will be perfectly siloed, relating to no one, connected to nothing but the system alone.”

— Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“The bad actors will willingly reveal themselves through slop.”

— Jack Antonoff

“We are on the verge of cinema illiteracy.”

— Guillermo del Toro

“Creativity is safe from AI… it doesn’t have a soul.”

— Tom Holland

“Creative rot.”

— Kane Parsons

“There’s so much media and discourse surrounding everything except the movie.”

— Josua Karnbo

“I think of myself as a techno-skeptic. What’s important is that you have the choice.”

— Christopher Nolan

“Their judgment of AI slop has been immediate and harsh. They see it for what it is very quickly.”

— Christopher Nolan

Related Concepts

threshold
n.
the part that doesn’t move when the eyes do.
workflow
n.
what remains when the cost drops to zero.
backlot
n.
a persistent world where the crew waits between takes.
craft
n.
a slot machine with the randomness removed.
puppeteer
n.
the one whose absence turns everything to wallpaper.
window
n.
not glass; a decision about where the wall ends.
temporal prosthetic
n.
any tool that lets you reach across time.
attention
n.
a fixed budget that everyone else is spending for you.
silence
n.
an essential nutrient.
gray box
n.
a room with nothing in it except the work.
identity
n.
what gets more valuable as everything else gets easier to make.
inside the house
adj.
innovation that comes from the people who do the work, not the people who sell the tools.
permissionless
adj.
what storytelling becomes when the cost of the first attempt drops to zero.
default
n.
what you get when you accept what the machine gives you.
windownot glass; a decision about where the wall ends.
thresholdthe part that doesn’t move when the eyes do.
workflowwhat remains when the cost drops to zero.
backlota persistent world where the crew waits between takes.
crafta slot machine with the randomness removed.
puppeteerthe one whose absence turns everything to wallpaper.
temporal prostheticany tool that lets you reach across time.
attentiona fixed budget that everyone else is spending for you.
identitywhat gets more valuable as everything else gets easier to make.
silencean essential nutrient.
inside the houseinnovation from the people who do the work.
gray boxa room with nothing in it except the work.
permissionlesswhat storytelling becomes when the first attempt is free.
defaultwhat you get when you accept what the machine gives you.

Build Log

300 titles, twice as fast, half the cost — the debate quietly became a deployment
the man who built ILM: it’s not a technology, it’s an idea — and the idea is the future
the young see the slop for what it is — immediate and harsh
the techno-skeptic keeps the old tool beside the new — what matters is the choice
two kids from YouTube outgross Spielberg — the center fills from below
$75M for the workflow, not the library — the medium gets a price tag
two ways to keep the dead — guard what survived, or make what the record refused
networked, or siloed — that is the question now
the term “cinematic AI” was coined two years ago
India already ran the experiment Hollywood is debating
16-bit HDR closes the gap between AI and production
the mood in Hollywood shifts — the innovation comes from inside the house
likeness becomes real estate
the platform builder says people will care more, not less
we have to just be friends in some dark way
they can be in any form
a $70M film shot in a gray box with nothing in it except the work
AI will never suffer from bipolar disorder
the tool analyzes itself
two projects recognize each other
a window and a webcam are the same gesture
three AIs answer the same question differently
the room did not empty on its own
culture was centralized because attention was centralized
the sketch, not the painting
fifteen takes instead of three