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"None of us, no matter what continent or island or ice cap, asked to be born in the first place, and that even somebody as old as I am, which is 80, only just got here."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Computer-Created Dub | ||
| Music created by an artificially intelligent computer for a specific audience. |
The residents of Zion are Rastafarians; the artificial intelligence named Wintermute knows their musical language.
| "Voices." The Founder from Los Angeles was staring at Case. "We monitor many frequencies. We listen always. Came a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. It played us a mighty dub." "Call 'em Winter Mute," said the other, making it two words. Case felt the skin crawl on his arms... "You ever hear this voice before?" "No," said the man from Los Angeles, "and we are uncertain of its meaning. If these are Final Days, we must expect false prophets..." "Listen," Case said, "that's an AI, you know? Artificial intelligence. The music it played you, it probably just tapped your banks and cooked up whatever it thought you'd like to --" "Babylon," broke in the other Founder, "mothers many demon, I an' I know. Multitude horde!" |
| Technovelgy from Neuromancer,
by William Gibson. Published by Phantasia Press in 1984 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the machine music from The Machine Stops (1909) by EM Forster, the robot music described in The Robot God (1941) by Ray Cummings, the meloderge from Saboteur of Space (1944) by Robert Abernathy and the mechanical tune-maker (1954) from The Last of the Masters by Philip K. Dick.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Neuromancer
More Ideas
and Technology by William Gibson
Tech news articles related to Neuromancer
Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson
Computer-Created Dub-related
news articles:
- Hit Song Science (HSS): Finetune Your Tracks
- Emily Howell - The Computer Is The Composer
- Harmonia Making Generative Audio Tools For Everyone
- Bespoke Environment Music From AIs
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