Therese Fowler writes:
“The history of storytelling isn’t one of simply entertaining the masses but of also advising, instructing, challenging the status quo.”
In other words, good stories told in an engaging way are like oil for the brain to tear down walls and boost understanding. Since a story helps the reader decode new words more easily. This is empowered by the reader’s motivation to follow the progress and learn something new. According to Uri Hasson from Princeton, a story is the only way to activate some parts in the brain. That makes a listener turn the story into her own idea and experience.
Storytelling in different ways
Every age has its innovative format for storytelling. The oral tradition proceeded to innovations like the printed book’s texts and illustrations. To proceed to move images and sound in the form of film, radio and TV. What is significant is that the power of a good story independently of format can move mountains and break through walls. The energy that drives pioneering stories is an engaging mix of aesthetic, logic and dreams. Either they are possible to achieve or not. Today, in the digital age, the innovation is that the receiver takes a further step into the story by interacting within it. This would improve the environment of understanding. Both because of the possible further integration into the story but also the prospects of interactive multimedia experiences that engage more senses.
Facebook tests its Artificial Intelligence with children’s stories
Seen in this light it is natural that Facebook now is testing and training its artificial intelligence’s understanding by making it read classic children books like Alice in Wonderland and the Jungle Book. The method is developed as that AI receives short excerpts from children’s stories and asked it to choose a word from a list of options that would fill the gap left by a missing word in the final sentence, according to New Scientist. This would test and train the AI ability to understand complex information.
Stories as engines to Learning History
Rudyard Kipling: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Then much less efforts would be necessary to be directed at demagogues like Trump, Johnson, LePen. As they are using peoples lack of understanding of history for their own purposes and their own power position. In the best-case scenario, it leads to a waiting room for societal development. But all too often leads to much more horrible consequences.
Written by
LarsGoran Bostrom©
Making use of AI in interactive books – Storyteller PublishingLab, Storyteller On Demand and Storyteller for Business
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