(where voldy went to school after hogwarts &) the fate of musicians

A couple of days ago the New York Times published, "Merely Human? That's So Yesterday", and it caught my attention. The article profiles Singularity University and its discussion about how technological advancement will change the future of humanity. The program includes courses on nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics, synthetic biology, space sciences, medicine and neurosciences, and immortality.

Writer for gizmodo.com, Kyle VanHemert, sums up Singularity U nicely: it's "basically some of the smartest people on the planet having the same discussions you did when you were stoned in college. But at this school, the participants in that conversation are the rare individuals with the intellect and wherewithal to make those ideas a reality."

Voldemort probably would've loved SU. He'd major in immortality. He'd fit right in with the super geniuses. After all, he did "great things. Terrible! Yes... but great."

&&&

In Chapter 5, Lanier discusses the fate of musicians as the world changes with technological advancements. There are hundreds of thousands of musicians hoping to be discovered on YouTube and Myspace. Many of these people want to be musicians for the wrong reasons: not because they are talented or passionate, but because they want to get attention and make millions. Yes, we (regular people) appreciate the entertainment industry, but I believe that the payscale for celebs needs to be reevaluated anyways. Maybe with artists making less money on music, it will discourage the people more interested in the money and glamourous lifestyle than actually creating music and performing for fans.

There will always be music. I'll always be able to get it. However, it might not be prepackaged or easy to find. I think of it sort of like a comparison between a chain clothing store and a vintage shop. In chain clothing stores, there are racks of clothes presented in an aesthetically pleasing and organized way. There are different sizes and colours, so everyone can have their own. There are mannequins to show you how the pieces might go together. There are new lines to tell you what will be cool this season. You are guaranteed that every store will be pretty much the same.

Vintage stores, instead of having mass produced and easy to find clothes, are all different. Some are more organized than others. Some carry only designer clothes in beautiful condition, while others have pretty much everything. They don't have sizes and colours for everyone. Normally, you have to search through racks and bins of clothes to find something that a) you like, and b) fits you.

The online music scene is kind like a crappy vintage clothing store: they accept donations from anyone. This music is not made for the masses. It is not organized. You need to have a lot of time to search through myspace profiles and youtube pages to discover new music. When searching for vintage clothes, you have to sift through a lot of crap to find something great. But, in both cases, when you make that discovery, it's awesome. Finding music on your own that you like is rewarding somehow. It's something the radio or Billboard 100 didn't tell you that you should think is cool. It's unique because not everyone knows the artist (and in the case of vintage clothing, where to get it).

Now, there are too many musicians for the average person (who isn't a University student looking for ways to procrastinate) to sift through and discover on their own. Most of them suck, and it's just easier to download mainstream stuff.

Lanier believes that the internet should be helping people “find new ways to get paid” and instead is causing people to have to run around in vans to go to gigs. I think that people running around in vans to play gigs are awesome and what music should be about (moreso than mansions, fancy cars and papparazzi anyways). While the internet has lead to 'vanity careers' for hundreds of thousands of wannabe musicians, it's also caused more musicians to share their talent. People don't have to rely on a major record label for exposure anymore.

I think that the music situation will become better. As record labels fail and digital music pushes cd's completely off the shelves, more discoveries of indie talent will be made. I think more people will rely on bloggers to sift through the garbage and discover new talent.

computers can't read

After reading chapter 2 and reading some stuff online, I'm a bit more scared of robot computers taking over the world.

Technology is developing so quickly, and there doesn't seem to be much thought going into the effects it could have on the world. Just because we can make something, doesn't mean we should. For example, at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, the Blue Brain Project is attempting to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain. Their goal is medical and scientific: understand the function and dysfunction of the human brain including intelligence and consciousness. Although this project promises medical breakthroughs, it can also inform artificial intelligence. In two years, the Blue Brain Project hopes to have a working model of a rodent brain. (I read about this project here. Also, see a preview of a documentary about it.)

Maybe we are on our way to the Singularity. This blog is convincing.

The roles of person and computer are already blurring. “Playing against the computer” is nothing out of the ordinary now (although I can imagine how people must have felt in 1997 when Deep Blue beat Kasparov). I agree with Lanier's thought about people lowering their standards to make computers seem smart. For example, the expectations of grammar and spell check on word processing programs is ridiculous. People rely so heavily on this function that when they have to hand write even a paragraph on paper, it's almost unreadable. Many people look to computers as smarter than them, and they think computers can read and proofread. Their are many flaws with this software (See! It didn't catch that because computers can't read. And if you don't know... you've lowered your standards... and you should learn how to spell there, their and they're!). People can read. Therefore, only people can properly proofread.

The Turing experiment is interesting as people begin to anthropomorphize computers more and more. Most people assume there is a person typing back to them, but it's not always the case. For example, online dating website scams with auto-responses from templates that certainly were not written by a 25-year-old blond in California.

Maybe people will get to the point where they don't care that it's a computer they're talking to. Maybe robots won't take over, but we'll all get a long. Maybe in the future, people will marry robots?