The 1970s Hollywood playbook for surviving AI: everyone becomes the editor
lauriewired · x · 2026-10-06
Security researcher lauriewired draws a historical parallel for AI: in the 1970s, cheaper film and portable cameras blew up studio shooting ratios from 5:1 to 50:1 or even 100:1 (Apocalypse Now), turning editing from a back-office job into the most important role on set — with experimental directors like Coppola and Scorsese leading the shift.
When digital cameras made footage effectively free in the 2000s, everyone shot 100:1 and new formats like reality TV (500:1) emerged, shifting massive labor to the editing side.
The lesson for AI: we're in the "1970s Hollywood" moment — producing code and tools is cheap, so you must become the ruthless editor solving the "miles of film" problem. Those closest to the experimental 1970s mindset likely handled the digital shift best. When something starts getting cheap, imagine what happens when it's free.
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