1 reply to this topic

[shane_allen]

I've been thinking about the post on how the method of shopping will change but that shopping trends will continue and that's all interesting. I read (read, "listened to audiobook") Micheal Shermer's "The Mind of the Market" and that got me thinking about the difference between culture, which can and will change as we move forward, and what is embedded in our nature; In shopping, that we may all be buying Micheal Jordans one year or Elmos the next but that both will be advertised in red because it's attractive.

What I wonder is: what are your opinions on music in the future? Obviously, music styles come and go and many remain as niches. That will continue if music continues and isn't what I'm asking about.

I haven't put much thought into this, but one area of discussion would be how the music is played "live".

As prosthetics¹ become highly precise², I imagine that a chord or riff can be programmed into the limb, as the "pencil spin" process was, and that those programs can be executed with thought much the same as current thought controlled software enters various routines given a mental state. Of course, the sound will be mindlessly identical each time unless there are options to mute a strum on the guitar or press the piano keys lighter (or whatever parallels there are for wind instruments). Learning to rapidly execute the programs controlling the limb would be akin to learning the instrument itself. The brain must form the connections that correlate to each action in the limb, just like traditional muscle memory. Though, there is the possibility of having a longer preprogrammed combination of movements that will have the limb play an entire song. Say, you just think of playing Toxicity by System Of A Down³, and your robo-arms flail around making it happen.

This prosthetics tangent is to give background to this question: What value does live music have when the band is just running a program on their limbs?

1. Ted Talk by Todd Kuiken, a physiatrist and engineer developing some of the most amazing prosthetic arms I've seen.
2. A robotic "hand" project from the U of Tokyo that is geared (pun) towards robotics but we can easily imagine as an example of the capabilities of future of prosthetic hands.
3. An skilled pianist's homemade video on youtube.

If you've stuck through this whole post, here is your reward.

Edited by shane_allen, 07 January 2012 - 11:58 PM.

[stevo]

To be honest, i don't think that people can make any new music since everything there is to create has already been done and with there is also copyrights keeping people from doing any new stuff.