> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://bushidogriot.ghost.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Calling All Dreamers
- URL: https://bushidogriot.ghost.io/calling-all-dreamers/
- Published: 2026-10-05T21:39:40.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-05T21:39:40.000Z
- Author: Ngwa Numfor
- Tags: The Codex

Imagine this.

You are a kid in the late 90s, and it’s your lucky night. Both your parents have retired to bed early (for once), and your siblings are away from the living room, keeping each other occupied with hushed sounds you assume are gossip you don’t care about.

The next step is critical. You use your dad’s flashlight and make sure you identify which button on the CRT TV (affectionately known as the box TV) lowers the volume. If Mom watched the TV last, odds are the volume would have alerted the house to your mischief much earlier.

As you turn on the TV and quickly reduce the volume on the TV, you make your way over to Channel 47, and you hear the narrator say, “*Space. A boy has the right to dream. There are endless possibilities stretched out before you. (You have to trust in your own power). Whatever happens from now on, you stand firm and face your destiny without fear, but with courage. What awaits him down the path, he will then have to choose…”*

This was one of several speeches I internalized on Toonami in my “formative years,” as I discovered the immersive world of anime. Shows like Dragon Ball Z, Rurouni Kenshin, and Inuyasha fueled an innate desire to live a life accessible to everyone but attainable by few.

As a dreamer.

Today, I think about that kid in the 90s, unafraid to dream. Would they be proud of who they are in 2026? What has life done to dissuade them from pursuing their passions? Do they even remember what they are passionate about?

Enter Bushido Griot.

If you have read my “[Start here](https://bushidogriot.ghost.io/start-here/)” blurb, you'll remember me saying, “We need innovators who will be able to break the mold and trailblaze new pathways in this new age we have entered.” Now I can admit I just said that intuitively. At the time, I had no real research I could point to as a reference point. So I hit the web and found data to bolster this argument.

One example I thought was extremely timely came from an article published 2024 in *Science Advances*, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, headlined “[Generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces the collective diversity of novel content](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn5290?ref=bushidogriot.ghost.io)”.

The study started with 500 writers in the UK; after dropouts and exclusions, 293 made it into the final analysis. Each participant took a quick “creativity test” (name 10 words as different from each other as possible). Afterward, they were given a task and split into three groups:

1. No AI.
2. Option to get one three-sentence story idea from GPT-4.
3. Option to get up to five ideas.

The writers could not copy and paste the AI text, but interestingly enough 9 in 10 of those in the AI groups asked for at least one idea.

The “judges” were 600 separate readers, each rating six stories without knowing which writers had AI access. Ratings covered novelty (original, rare), usefulness (could it become a publishable book), and how enjoyable, well-written, and boring each story was.

The researchers also measured mathematically how alike the stories were, both to each other and to the AI ideas. They turned each story into a numerical "fingerprint" using an OpenAI text tool and then measured how close the fingerprints were to each other and to the AI's ideas.

The results were similar to how the headline may have sounded to some of you.

AI prompts made stories better on average. However, the “gains” mostly went to writers who scored lower on the initial creativity test.

One interesting finding was that AI tools seemed to do little for the “most creative writers” (the ones who scored highly on the initial test). Their stories were already rated highly, and AI didn't raise them further. In the discussion section of the article, the researchers state, “...one might ask whether the generative AI ideas can push the upper bound of creativity of produced stories, beyond what particularly creative humans are capable of on their own. We do not find evidence of this possibility in this study.”

Another finding was that the AI-assisted stories were more alike, both to each other and to the AI ideas (about 5% closer to the AI's ideas). The researchers found that the writers in these groups anchored on the idea they were handed.

Essentially, and I’m paraphrasing this in my own words, the researchers found that AI tools did a good job of raising the floor, but not the ceiling.

![Chart: generative AI raised story ratings for less creative writers but not for the most creative writers (Doshi & Hauser, 2024)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/16/2e/162e17bb-37e2-4cb7-bae0-0e8f43b26ddc/content/images/2026/10/ai-creativity-floor-not-ceiling.jpg)

AI raised the floor, not the ceiling. Source: Doshi & Hauser, **Science Advances*, 2024.

If everyone uses the same AI tools, the pool of stories told will shrink.

That’s where dreamers come in.

Now, I know the AI convo is constant, and I will probably share more thoughts and feelings about AI in several future muses, but I don’t want the core message of this piece to get buried.

The point I was trying to make is the world needs dreamers. And if you are reading this thinking, “well, I’m not a dreamer; I hate writing or telling stories”... I should explain what I mean.

A dreamer isn’t necessarily someone in the “creative arts” field (though I argue you can bring creativity to most fields); to me, a dreamer is someone who is unashamedly authentic.

I believe the greatest dreamers are self-aware most of the time, and so comfortable in their path that they radiate hope into the hearts of those scared to plunge.

Before I end this muse, I want to acknowledge that this is not an easy task. Being a dreamer in the big 2026 has been advertised on social media as “easier than ever”. But that is a lie.

It isn’t easy to take the plunge and risk capital in a world where most of us live paycheck to paycheck and face mounting bills. The most popular word to describe the American and global economy is “unprecedented”. Every week seems to bring a new, unforeseen crisis, and you think I expect people to abandon their temporary security to fight the wilderness alone?

No. I'm not naive about this. But what is the alternative?

For my American readers, does the traditional American Dream still resonate? Do you believe that if you work “really hard” for a company for a couple of decades, you will “get ahead”?

Ultimately, I don’t have the answers. I did not choose to share my thoughts because I believed I was “right”; it’s actually quite the opposite.

As I’m writing this, I’m 33 years old, “starting over” for what feels like the 20th time. The main difference is this time I am not choosing an alternative.

I believe in a future full of innovators and dreamers who see themselves in those around them, and are tolerant enough to understand that we are all just different shades of each other.

On that note, this is no longer an article, blurb, piece, muse, or any of that. This is a covenant. I will no longer choose to deny myself the right to believe in anything less than what I envision for myself. I will choose no other dream over my own, and I promise to step into the vanguard to protect any other dreamers afraid to step into this world as their authentic selves.

The next generations deserve at least that from me, and I will deliver.

So I guess the next question is, what will you choose?

But choosing the American Dream over your own?

Imagine that…