I would hope with all these new technologies there is a "present the original" (or "naked version," "unmodified, unadulterated") version toggle so that while we can enjoy modern convenience we also have the option to visit actual reality from time to time.
I would hate it if one day accessing the original versions of things (whether books, videos, history, event reality, etc.) becomes an impossibility and we live in a synthetic world.
I'm with you, but I fear that horse is already out of the barn. I picture someone 20 years from now trying to find out what their parent really looked like when they were young. The obviously smoothed-out face filters are already giving way to AI-powered homogenization. And the filtering is moving deeper down the stack from the app to the camera itself. There will be no "original".
I really agree. All the latest rage is to upscale the older pre-digital animated tv and movies. While it should often be done, it always changes them enough to make it noticeably different than the original experience. A lot of people don't care, but it bothers the archivist in me.
I even find it largely worse than not upscaling. The smaller the image on the retina, the higher the density of detail, and the higher the perceived sharpness. I don't mind the small viewport — the brain is already adapted to concentrate on just the fovea when looking closely at things.
Downscaling is also a substitute for frame interpolation. 24-60 fps video becomes noticeably smoother, but the effect is weaker with animation ≤8 fps. Why does this even happen? That less of an absolute difference between frames is less jarring makes intuitive sense. However, I can't find any research, only the seemingly single forum thread where it's been discussed on the internet.*
Finally, I contend that even with a high-resolution source, a smaller viewport is not necessarily a worse experience, merely a different one. Because peripheral vision is so poor, by looking at a smaller image, you see the 'bigger picture' faster, without having to move your eyes. It's most noticeable in fast montages where you'd rewind to see something that you missed.
See also the opposite: "attention deconcentration"
PS: Downscaling below 1:1 increases sharpness with little detail loss when the original resolution is higher than the actual level of detail, owing to the likes of intermediate upscaling, optical limits, or compression.
I just went and rewatched Star Trek TNG in the 1080p version. It is not upscaled, but scanned from the original film. It looks fantastic, but a lot of the special effects really stand out. The star fields when looking out windows have a totally different look it's almost like you can tell there is just a wall behind the glass with a bunch of lights stuck on it. And the painted landscapes similar to the original series are really given away. I bet some people hate the 1080p and some people now hate the original SD version. But I am glad both exist.
I would hate it if one day accessing the original versions of things (whether books, videos, history, event reality, etc.) becomes an impossibility and we live in a synthetic world.