Hi David, > This day has more-or-less arrived. Whether we like it or not, most of > the music we hear in our daily lives, e.g., radio spots, commercials, > tv-shows and ever-increasingly, major motion pictures are filled with > music generated by computers, albeit mostly through samples generated > by humans, but nevertheless, they are rendered by a computer.
I think that's somewhat different than what I was discussing: I'm talking about WATCHING computers (or robots) PLAY music, not listening to music that was played/generated/rendered [to any degree] by computers. Case in point: my friend Roger created and programmed McBlare, a robotic bagpipe player (see <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~music/mcblare/>). Am I intellectually fascinated by Roger's work? Absolutely. Is it stimulating and exciting to watch McBlare play music? Absolutely. Would I rather watch a human (e.g., my dad) play the bagpipes? Absolutely. Will there come a day in my lifetime when I would honestly -- emotionally -- prefer to watch a robot play an instrument rather than a human? I don't believe so. [But I *do* believe there is a chance that such a day will come eventually.] > One thing a robot, or any type of computer generated music will never > replace is the simple gratification of actually playing I would go one step further: I constantly -- and happily -- use computers/robots/programs to do certain things [almost always faster, and quite often "better"] than I can, in part so that I am free to spend more time and energy doing certain other things [which may or may not be things computers to do faster or "better" than I]. To wit: I use a boiling-water dispenser, in part so that I am free to spend more time drinking and enjoying my tea; I use email for 99% of my correspondence, in part so that I am free to spend more time using a pen and stationery to write meaningful long-hand letters to my close friends; and I engrave my music with Lilypond, in part so that I am free to spend more time at the piano with a pencil and manuscript paper rather than being forced to have a computer compose for me. Other people make other choices, obviously. I just think it's unfortunate if you stop doing something you love simply because there's a computer or robot or program that does it "better" or "faster" than you do. > ... but that's me. As evidenced by computer gaming, the notion of > social interaction with a computer has long since been upon us. +1 Cheers, Kieren. _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user