Yesterday I listened the the radio program 1-A in which an artificial intelligence proponent and expert described the impact of technology on the arts. He described how artificial intelligence, (a-i) would put "art" in the hands of the masses, making all things so easy for all. With A-i and without carefully cultivating skill of hand and without knowing or learning anything but the manipulation of the device, each of us could be an artist without exerting any effort at all. In fact, we could set our devices in motion, creating art, and just check in on their progress once in a while to observe what we've "done."
And I ask the question that one engaged in the tactile arts must ask.
What is the impact of this proposed future on our humanity?We set ourselves apart from the mundane and from each other by developing expertise, skill and creative intellect. Our creative vision that we hope to share with others comes from within our uniquely meaningful experience. The character and intelligence of the individual human being rests upon having done difficult and demanding things. When all of our judgment, our character and our intelligence has been off-loaded to the artificialized intelligence of our digital stuff, what will remain of us?
That is the future that stands before us now. We can reject that dismal life by engaging in the arts. Make music with a real instrument. Make something real from wood. Paint with a brush on canvas something you witness in real life. When you are done, try again and attempt to improve what you've done.
A vision of that future when very little remains of us was imagined by E.M. Forster in his short story, The machine stops. http://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machine-Stops.pdf I have shared this short story before with readers because it is prophetic.
It was written and published in 1909
Today I will string guitars and finish the photography and text.
Make, fix and create...
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