6. Hofstadter on EMI
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This article is from the Hofstadter and GEB FAQ, by TANAKA Tomoyuki tanaka@cs.indiana.edu with numerous contributions by others.
6. Hofstadter on EMI
http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=336359992
In article <...>, Hans Moravec <hpm@cs.cmu.edu> wrote:
>
> Of course, shortly thereafter, Hofstadter was introduced to
> David Cope's music composing program EMI. In August 1997
> New Scientist article:
>
> http://www.newscientist.com/ns/970809/features.html
>
> excerpt:
>
> The fact that a program running on an ordinary Macintosh
> computer can produce high-quality music is turning heads in the
> field of artificial intelligence, as well. "I think it's one of
> the most provocative, if not the most provocative thing I've
> come across in artificial intelligence," says Douglas
> Hofstadter, [...]
>
> Hofstadter, a passionate amateur pianist, thinks most of EMI's
> output still falls short of the real thing. But occasionally
> it's bang on, as in the case of a "Chopin" mazurka. "When I
> first played through that mazurka and got to know it, I was
> quite stunned by it," he says. "It sounded to me, except for a
> few glitches, as if it could slide right into the book of Chopin
> mazurkas."
>
> Many people--including Hofstadter--find Cope's program
> profoundly threatening. "EMI has no model whatsoever of life
> experiences, has no sense of itself, has no sense of Chopin, has
> never heard a note of music, has no trace in it of where I think
> music comes from. Not a trace," he says. "I'm comparing that
> with an entire human soul, one forged by the struggles and
> travails of life [...]."
>
> Yet EMI's mazurka is all but indistinguishable from the real
> thing. Does that mean, worries Hofstadter, that the composer's
> soul is irrelevant to the music? "If that's the case--and I'm
> not saying it is--then I've been fooled by music all my life.
> I've been sucked in by a vast illusion. And that would be for me
> an absolute tragedy, because my entire life I've been moved by
> music," he says. "I've always felt I've been coming into contact
> with the absolute essence of humanity."
>Re: help converting (Mac) bin -> (PC) midi
>> (subtitle: revenge of the Mac users)
>>
>> the if the copyright holder agrees, i'll probably offer
>> the PC .mid versions in my home page.
>(the copyright holder has not responded to my email request.)
>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>> http://arts.ucsc.edu/faculty/cope/emi-midi.html
>>
>> Here are a few select EMI MIDI files for downloading.
>> EMI-bach-invention-1
>> EMI-bach-invention-2
>> EMI-bach-fugue
>> EMI-chopin-mazurka
>> EMI-joplin-rag
>>
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