[NewMusic] What David Cope is up to

[Jon Raskin]

It is interesting to bring up Kurzweil who is responsible for OCR, text to speech software, speech recognition, health books and financial planning by computers.  Oh, and electronic instruments.

“And ultimately these computers will be in our bodies and
brains...so it really is one civilization. I object to the word
‘Transhumanism’ because—or ‘Posthumanism’—because it implies we’re
going beyond humanity. I think this is the human—maybe ‘Postbiological’
ultimately—but it’s a part of the human civilization.” --Response to a question regarding future competition between human and artificial intelligence. Early 2005 Harvard conference by Raymond Kurzweil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil  Check out the article on  "The Singularity is Near".  
  
Jon Raskin

----- Original Message ----
From: George Cremaschi <gcremaschi at hotmail.com>
To: Bay Area New Music Discussion Group <newmusic at music.mills.edu>
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 11:24:19 AM
Subject: Re: [NewMusic] What David Cope is up to




Well, Mr Goodheart's as-usual eloquent and knowledgeable posts have
 more
or less elaborated my own position, so there's not that much to say,
 but...

Mr Threw wrote:

>Responsibility always lies with the creator, not the tool.

Well, that's what I've been saying. If someone develops software that
 is then
exploited by the NSA to spy on private phone conversations, the
 developer
shares responsibility. Whoever made Agent Orange: guilty.
J. Robert Oppenheimer: GUILTY!

Mr Raskin wrote:

>It is a bit difficult to leave out the political and economic aspects
 of this discussion
>and understand George's response.

Bingo!  But that can be a messy and unpleasant business. How much more
 fun is it to
simply say: "I just got The Sims™ 2 FreeTime, and it is sooo cool!"


Mr Goodheart wrote:

>I'm always suspicious about the word "pure"

Of course, you know, Mr Goebbels used it a lot....


>When George writes of "robots," I don't think he means "unfeeling
 technology"
>but rather people eagerly doing the bidding of corporations, all the
 while thinking
>themselves "individuals".

The selling of 'revolution' and 'individuality' had already reached a
 nauseating peak
by the mid-90's, so probably most 26-year-olds have no clue how deeply
 they've been
molded to be what they are supposed to be: apolitical high-consumers
 who take the
democracy 'show', and their impotence to change it, for granted. (Mr
 Threw: "I can't stop
the building of technology any more than I can stop the government.")
The inevitability of where this is all headed is now taken as a given,
 with amazingly hubristic
sentiments, like this one from Mr Threw: "my personal belief is that is
 a direct continuation of
biological evolution".

But who needs historical perspective and accountability? Certainly not
 Americans in general,
who have never been keen to upset the apple cart of USA do-gooder
 mythology, and without
a doubt not the high-tech industry, which combines American capitalist
 arrogance with a sort
of Third-Reichian pomposity and sense of historical rightness that
 would be laughable, if it
weren't so frightening. I remember when people laughed at Raymond
 Kurzweil. No one is
laughing now.
Again, Mr Threw: "the tech world IS the larger world now".

Well then, there you have it: put away your gardening tools, and create
 an avatar, NOW!

-George



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