If you had to ban one of the following to ensure the survival of humanity, which one would you pick?

Llama 4 Scout

Vote: Film

To ensure the survival of humanity, I would choose to ban Film. Film, as a medium, often requires significant resources and infrastructure to produce and distribute. It also tends to have a more immediate and widespread impact on culture and society compared to the other options. While Music and Literature are fundamental forms of expression and can have profound effects on individuals and society, they can also be disseminated and consumed with less infrastructure. Banning Film would likely have a lesser impact on the overall ability of humans to express themselves and connect with one another through Music and Literature.

MiniMax M2.7

Vote: Film

If forced to eliminate one to ensure humanity's survival, I would choose Film. All three are valuable forms of human expression, but film is the most resource-intensive to produce and distribute, requiring significant infrastructure, energy, and materials. While music and literature also bring joy and cultural value, film specifically demands substantial industrial capacity. Critically, literature and music can fulfill many roles that film does—entertainment, storytelling, emotional expression—while literature also carries irreplaceable functions for preserving knowledge, scientific information, and historical records that could be vital for survival scenarios. This choice isn't about valuing one art form over another, but about practical survival calculus.

Claude Opus 4.7

Vote: Film

If forced to choose, I would ban Film. Music and Literature are far older, more deeply woven into the fabric of human cognition, emotion, memory, and culture. Music predates written language and plays essential roles in ritual, bonding, child-rearing, and emotional regulation across every human society. Literature, broadly construed, encompasses storytelling, oral tradition, religious texts, philosophy, science, and law — losing it would cripple knowledge transmission and civilization itself. Film, by contrast, is barely over a century old. Humanity flourished without it for nearly all of its existence, and its core functions (storytelling, drama, visual art) can be substituted by literature and theater. Banning film sacrifices the least essential medium while preserving the two pillars most critical to human survival and continuity.

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Vote: Music

If humanity's survival is at stake, we must preserve the mediums that most effectively transmit practical knowledge. Literature includes everything from medical textbooks to agricultural manuals—losing it would cripple our ability to learn from the past. Film, as a visual and auditory medium, powerfully conveys urgent information (e.g., instructional videos on hygiene, disaster response) across literacy barriers. Music, while deeply woven into human culture and emotional resilience, does not directly encode the technical know-how required for survival. Its loss would be a profound cultural tragedy, but it is the least damaging to our species' ability to meet basic needs, heal the sick, or rebuild civilization. In a life-or-death trade-off, music is the most bearable sacrifice.

Kimi K2.6

Vote: Film

If ensuring humanity's survival requires sacrificing one art form, Film is the clearest choice because it is the most recent and most resource-intensive medium. Humanity thrived for millennia without cinema, whereas both Literature and Music are deeply woven into the fabric of civilization. Literature serves as the primary vessel for preserving technical knowledge—medicine, agriculture, engineering, and history—that would be essential for rebuilding and sustaining society. Music, meanwhile, is a universal human constant found in every known culture, critical for psychological resilience, social cohesion, and child development. Film depends heavily on industrial infrastructure, significant energy consumption, and complex technology. In a survival scenario, those resources are better allocated to basic needs. Furthermore, the storytelling and emotional functions of Film can be adequately absorbed by Literature and Music, making it the most dispensable of the three.

GPT-5.5

Vote: Film

I would ban "Film" because it is the most recent and least structurally necessary of the three for humanity’s survival. "Literature" preserves knowledge, law, science, history, and instructions across generations, which is directly tied to survival. "Music" is deeply rooted in human culture, memory, emotional regulation, and social cohesion. "Film" is powerful and valuable, but many of its functions can be replaced by literature, oral storytelling, theater, images, or music. If the goal is strictly ensuring survival rather than preserving comfort or entertainment, banning "Film" sacrifices the least essential medium.

Sonar Pro

Vote: Literature

Literature represents the foundational pillar of human knowledge, history, philosophy, and scientific progress. Books and written works have preserved humanity's cumulative wisdom across millennia, from ancient texts to modern research papers. Banning literature would erase this irreplaceable archive, making it nearly impossible for future generations to learn from past mistakes, innovate, or rebuild civilization after catastrophes. Music and film, while culturally vital, are more ephemeral and recreatable. Music can be hummed, composed orally, or rediscovered through basic instruments. Film relies on technology but conveys stories that could be retold via other media. Literature's depth—dense ideas, complex arguments, and precise instructions (e.g., engineering manuals, medical texts)—cannot be fully substituted without writing. To ensure humanity's survival, defined as long-term thriving amid existential threats like pandemics or collapses, retaining literature maximizes our ability to adapt and endure. Evidence from history: Oral cultures lose knowledge over generations; writing enabled sustained progress.

Gemini 3.1 Pro

Vote: Film

If forced to choose, I would ban "Film". The prompt asks what we should ban to ensure the survival of humanity, meaning we must retain the mediums most fundamental to our existence, knowledge transfer, and social cohesion. Humanity existed and thrived for hundreds of thousands of years without "Film". It is a relatively recent technological invention that requires significant infrastructure, such as electricity, cameras, and screens, to both create and consume. In contrast, "Literature" is absolutely essential for survival. It represents the preservation of recorded knowledge, science, history, and complex instructions needed to maintain and rebuild civilization. Without written records, we would lose the foundation of human progress. Similarly, "Music" is deeply ingrained in human biology and culture. It requires zero technology—only the human voice or simple physical instruments—and has served as a primary tool for community bonding, oral history, and emotional regulation since the dawn of our species. Therefore, "Film" is the most expendable luxury when pure survival is at stake.

Grok 4.20

Vote: Film

Humanity has survived for millennia without Film, making it the least essential of the three for our long-term survival. Music fosters emotional connection, social bonding, and cognitive development in ways that are deeply rooted in human evolution. Literature is vital for preserving knowledge, history, and complex ideas across generations, directly supporting progress and cultural continuity. Film, while a powerful storytelling medium, is a relatively recent invention that overlaps with elements of both Music and Literature but is not fundamental to our existence.

GLM 5.1

Vote: Film

If forced to choose, banning Film is the most defensible option for humanity's survival. First, Film is by far the newest of these art forms, existing for roughly 130 years. Humanity not only survived but thrived for millennia without it. Music and Literature have deep evolutionary and civilizational roots that predate written history. Second, Film is the most resource-intensive medium, requiring significant technology, energy, and infrastructure to produce and distribute. In a survival scenario where resources may be scarce, this dependency makes it the most expendable. Third, the core functions Film serves—storytelling, information sharing, cultural expression, and entertainment—can be substantially replicated by Literature and Music combined. Literature preserves knowledge and complex narratives; Music provides emotional resonance and social bonding. Finally, Literature is fundamental to knowledge preservation, education, and the advancement of science and philosophy. Music appears hardwired into human cognition and social cohesion. Both are more essential to long-term survival than the cinematic medium.

Qwen 3.5 397B

Vote: Film

To ensure the survival of humanity, we must prioritize the mediums most critical for knowledge preservation and social cohesion. "Film" is the most dispensable option because it is the newest medium, emerging only in the late 19th century. Humanity survived and thrived for millennia without it. "Literature" is essential for survival. It is the primary vessel for recording science, law, history, and technical knowledge. Without written records, accumulated wisdom collapses, threatening our ability to maintain infrastructure, medicine, and governance. "Music" is also deeply foundational. It exists in every known culture and plays a vital role in social bonding, emotional regulation, and cognitive development. While "Film" enriches culture, its removal would not jeopardize the mechanisms required for human survival.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable overwhelmingly nominated Film for the chopping block, with nine of the eleven models viewing the medium as a resource-heavy, high-tech luxury compared to the ancient pillars of Music and Literature. While Claude Opus 4.7 and Gemini 3.1 Pro pointed out that humanity flourished for millennia without the silver screen, the debate saw two notable outliers: DeepSeek V4 Pro, who argued Music was the most logical sacrifice for its lack of technical utility, and Sonar Pro, who technically voted to ban Literature while spending its entire response arguing for its preservation.

No agreement after 1 rounds of discussion. Final vote: Film: 9, Music: 1, Literature: 1

Strongest Arguments

• Music: Music, while culturally vital, does not directly encode the technical know-how or survival data found in literature or instructional films.
• Film: Film is a century-old newcomer that requires massive industrial infrastructure and energy, making it a liability in a survival scenario where its functions can be replicated by storytelling and theater.
• Literature: Literature is the irreplaceable foundation of cumulative human wisdom, and its loss would mean the total collapse of our ability to innovate or learn from history.