[LAU] Google Magenta project's first composition

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Sat, Jun 04, 2016 at 10:52:32PM +0200, Robin Gareus wrote:

> Call me again once the google-cluster takes a break from indexing and
> processing in order to attend a concert and listen to some music for
> pure enjoyment.

To the point, I'd say.

For me anything called 'art' becomes interesting (and then
I'd call it 'art' - but that's just a convenient definition
of a word) if to the observer it refers in some way - maybe
very indirectly - to the experience of being a human.

In that sense there's no doubt that e.g. Reich's music is
'art'. Even if he didn't want to convey any feeling or
emotion, just the simple fact of knowing that one of us
had the idea of having microphones swing on a pendulum
above a speaker and let them produce sound by feedback,
produces an 'emotion ' by revealing something we're 
capable of.

AI as we know it isn't anywhere near to being able to produce
anything like that by itself. It would requires at least two
steps: 

* self-awareness: being aware of its own existence in some
context, the way it is sustained physically, and being able
to act in ways that may affect this existence, and

* awareness of others entities who share the same or similar
conditions.

The latter can be tricky even for us humans. We can both overdo
it (by assuming human feelings in things that aren't capable
if having them), and fail miserably (e.g. us vs. them tribal 
thinking, racism).

On a different note: whatever Google produces isn't about
art. Google's business is selling surveillance data. If you
use Google's services, you're not a user, let a alone a
customer, you're the product being sold. Better be aware
of that.

Ciao,

-- 
FA

A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be an utopia.
It's also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris
and hysterically inflated market opportunities. (Cory Doctorow)