I suppose that question depends on whether they believe in silicon heaven. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=silicon+heaven
Thought provoking though. Does that mean the installation is doing voice recog? On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:17:11 +0800 Chris McCormick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > > For the last few months I have been helping my friends Rodney Glick > (Artist) and Moshe Y Bernstein (Rabbi) with the technical aspects of one > of Rodney's artworks. The artwork, entitled "Master Of Prayer" will be > showing among many other fascinating works in Rodney's exhibition. It > opens tommorrow night (Thursday), 6pm at the [Lawrence Wilson Art > Gallery](http://lwgallery.uwa.edu.au/) at the University of Western > Australia. I'm really excited about this project. I got to use Pure > Data, voice synthesis (mbrola), and a network based pseudo-AI (Pd) to > help Rodney and Moshe create a really compelling and thought provoking > artwork. Here's the blurb that Moshe wrote about it: > > "In the Jewish tradition the full prayer service can be performed only > in a quorum of ten adult males known in Hebrew as a minyan. The main > part of the service, which occurs three times daily, is the Shmona > Esrei, or Eighteen Benedictions. These blessings are first recited > silently by the entire congregation. Afterwards, during the morning and > afternoon liturgies, they are repeated aloud by the cantor, often > referred to as the Ba'al Tefillah or 'Master of Prayer'. In orthodox > Judaism any male, whether layman or cleric, over the age of thirteen can > lead the prayers. During the repetition of the Shmona Esrei, also called > the Amidah, or 'standing prayer', the congregation answers responsively > to each of the benedictions recited. In this installation each computer > has been individually programmed to respond to the blessings recited by > the main computer, the 'Master of Prayer', leading the afternoon Mincha > service. Though the installation appears to parody the human condition > of prayer by rote, on a deeper level it asks a haunting question about > the inherent nature of artificial intelligence. The Jewish sages require > kavannah, or 'proper intent' for prayer to be truly acceptable. To the > extent that computers can be programmed to 'think', might they not be > programmed to this 'proper intent' as well? In a tentative answer to > that question, 'Master of Prayer' can be experienced as a high-tech, > Jewish version of the Tibetan prayer-wheel or Christian rosary beads." > > Good night, > > Chris. > > ------------------- > http://mccormick.cx > > _______________________________________________ > [email protected] mailing list > UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> > http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list -- Use the source _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
