Socrates and Plato walked through the Agora when they encountered a crowd gathered around a curious bronze box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From within came music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not merely melodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Entire symphonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Funeral marches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dance music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The box required no lyre, no flute, no singer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SOCRATES:<\/strong> Tell me, Plato, who composed these songs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> They say the machine did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Ah. And who taught the machine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> Thousands of musicians, though many without knowing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Curious. Then perhaps the machine resembles a student who has attended every lesson but never paid tuition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plato smiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> That is one way of putting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They listened to a song so convincing several merchants began humming along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Is it beautiful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> Certainly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Then is beauty enough?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> You are already preparing a trap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Only a question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> No. Beauty is not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> Because I wonder whether admiration changes when we discover no one struggled to produce it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Socrates nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Let us examine that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suppose two sculptors reveal identical statues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One spent thirty years mastering marble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other pressed a button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Should we admire them equally?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> We might admire the statues equally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not the sculptors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> So our praise is divided between the object and the life that produced it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> Precisely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They walked on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A young man announced proudly that he had created two hundred songs before breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Is abundance evidence of excellence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> Usually it is evidence of abundance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Socrates laughed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Well answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A little farther along they heard another machine generate songs in every imaginable style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lizst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary Margaret O’Hara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heavy metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indian classical music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bluegrass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Opera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each arriving within moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Does imitation require understanding?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> Sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A parrot may pronounce justice without becoming just.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Then perhaps a machine may produce longing without ever longing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plato stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> That may be the heart of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The music can resemble grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But resemblance is not grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Socrates remained silent for several moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Tell me, Plato.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a mother sings to her child, what matters more?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The notes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or the mother?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> The child would probably answer, “The mother.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Then perhaps we have mistaken music for organized sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps music is organized relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plato looked unconvinced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> Yet the child grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day the child may hear a recording by someone long dead and still weep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Relationship survives absence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> A fair objection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps then music is not relationship alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps it is evidence that another consciousness once passed this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> And if the consciousness belongs to a machine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Socrates smiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Does it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> I don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Nor do I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They reached the edge of the city where an old musician sat tuning a cracked lyre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His hands shook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several strings buzzed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He began to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mistakes appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unexpected pauses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The melody occasionally lost its way before finding itself again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he finished, neither philosopher spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally Plato broke the silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> The machine played more accurately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> Yet I cared less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plato thought for a long while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLATO:<\/strong> Because while he played, I found myself wondering whether he would succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The machine had never been in danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Socrates smiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCRATES:<\/strong> Then perhaps risk is not an accidental feature of art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps it is one of its principal materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As they continued walking, the bronze box behind them generated another flawless masterpiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahead, the old musician missed another note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only one of them, however, turned to see whether he was all right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Socrates and Plato walked through the Agora when they encountered a crowd gathered around a curious bronze box. From within came music. Not merely melodies. Entire symphonies. Love songs. Funeral […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[899],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-9638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-improvising"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}