Do androids dream of electric muses?

Machines, creativity, and the future

Do androids dream of electric muses?

The other day I was walking through the city of Bern when a sound caught my attention—it was hauntingly beautiful, otherworldly, and altogether strange.

When I walked toward the sound, I realized it was a single man playing a handpan drum, throat singing, and utilizing the glass echoes between two storefronts in the city center.

He switched to an opera, then a French ballad, and then back to throat singing.

And I was brought to tears—not because the music was beautiful (it was) but because I wondered if this type of talent from a human being was a quality whose days were numbered.

If AI can now craft music and art, will people still find meaning in creating? Once our robot masters have best us at creativity, will we still value mastery?

What struck me was that he wasn’t playing for any reason but to play. He wasn’t asking for coins. He wasn’t looking for fame. He created music for the sole purpose of creation. And in it, he found flow.

If we cease to look at music as productive once robots can do anything humans do, will we still give piano lessons to children? Will music conservatories close and symphonies be reduced to simple code, once AI reaches a certain threshold of talent?

I hope not. Art and music are not only for the consumers—they are also for the creators. For the flow state we enter when we play, for the mental health benefits that have been proven time and time again in art therapy and more, for the simple call from a single human soul—I am here, and I create.

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What to Read this Month

This book comes with quite a few trigger warnings. If horror isn’t your jam, skip this section and wait until next month’s recommendation for a better read for you.

I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest adult horror fan—I’ll read horror for children for days, and Goosebumps and Katherine Arden’s middle-grade horror are some of my favorite comfort reads, but adult horror sometimes gets a bit too dark for me.

Despite the many nightmares it left with me, this story was worth the read. For a whole week, you couldn’t catch me without it. I’d walk to the bus stop, immersed in one scene or another, of this epic and horrifying tale. If you’re looking for a book that will keep you up at night—both because you don’t want to put it down and also because you will be very scared of the dark—I’d recommend this one.

From Bookshop.org

ONE OF TIME AND THE ATLANTIC'S TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR - ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S TEN BEST HORROR BOOKS OF THE YEAR - LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD - GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK

A woman's mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family in the first novel to be translated into English by the International Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed--"the most exciting discovery I've made in fiction for some time" (Kazuo Ishiguro).

A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality.

For Gaspar, the son, this maniacal cult is his destiny. As the Order tries to pull him into their evil, he and his father take flight, attempting to outrun a powerful clan that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But how far will Gaspar's father go to protect his child? And can anyone escape their fate?

Moving back and forth in time, from London in the swinging 1960s to the brutal years of Argentina's military dictatorship and its turbulent aftermath, Our Share of Night is a novel like no other: a family story, a ghost story, a story of the occult and the supernatural, a book about the complexities of love and longing with queer subplots and themes. This is the masterwork of one of Latin America's most original novelists, "a mesmerizing writer," says Dave Eggers, "who demands to be read."

Purchase this book here

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Responses from last month's newsletter

To read the newsletter on productivity and new beginnings, click here

This couldn't have come at a better time. :)

Being on maternity leave, the whole rhythm of my life changed and I often feel unproductive and frustrated.

"time wasn’t consistent—that it stretched or contracted according to what filled it." This! This was such a revelation to me! so I started filling up my calendar with my to do list.

Thank you for sending this!

-Aida Badu, Switzerland

Hmm. Does having less time make me more productive? Well, since I’m so busy, I’m being productive at something, just maybe not the something of choice. In which case, having less time makes me grumpy and on occasion, fierce.

-Mary Glickman, USA

Yes! totally true! Free time can be very nice, but it's also easy to waste time and get distracted by things that don't provide any value... I once heard a great quote from a manager: "If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person".

-Gabriel Begun, Switzerland

Your most recent newsletter totally inspired me. I have been using my short tram rides to learn a torah reading and I’ve already made a lot of progress!

-Elli Cohen Braunschweig, Switzerland