PS - That's how I originally found Ted as well - from his 1st Beato talk. I'll be checking it out shortly. I usually check out Rick's channel every few days to see who he has been talking to. He has been on a very good roll recently
This is the best video interview on the whole Internet/YouTube. It should be shown in schools and college courses, under the title: “The rise of the New Romantics”, on how 2 brilliant and creative minds can make magic happen in front of a coffee cup by talking about their passions and life long experiences bringing wisdom to everyone.
There are cycles in everything. There are cycles in the weather, the economy, the sun, wars, geological formations, atomic vibrations, climate, human moods, the motions of the planets, populations of animals, the occurrence of diseases, the prices of commodities and shares and the large scale structure of the universe. None of these are independent of each other. Research shows that very different disciplines often find the same cycle periods in their data. The inter-relatedness of all things is an idea who's time has come. The study of cycles is an excellent way to understand this because the periods of cycles are as easy to recognize as fingerprints or DNA sequences. Teds's talent stack is amazing and he figured this out!!
I'll resist laying it on thick by saying things like "Holy Shit! My favorite all-in-one producer, musician, and interviewer interviewing an insightful and passionate author with an encyclopedic knowledge of music, who also happens to publish my favorite newsletter? WTF is happening?!?".
So: Wow, sounds great! Looking forward to watching. Thank you. 😄
Loved it. Still have about 30 minutes left. As a dedicated reader, I was familiar with many of the points you made, but it was still great to hear you make them in person.
Fantastic interview, Ted. I rank both you and Rick at the top of the "micro-culture" list of influencers for today's musicians. Question for you Ted: The more I think on it, the more I'm incensed that there are currently no consumer protection laws that require open disclosure of A.I. used in art creation. As a consumer, I am adamant in not wanting to support any art, music or literature that was created by A.I. rather than a human. However, these tech companies are more than willing to use deceptive practices against consumers by implying that a piece of art, music or literature was human created by using pseudo creator names rather than indicating "created by A.I.". I feel that as consumers (and artists) we need to become organized and pro-active in demanding consumer protection laws against deceptive A.I. created works of art, music and literature. Would you be willing to write a piece that offers suggestions on how best your readers can pro-actively lobby for this type of consumer protection laws? Coming from you, this could have a broad reach and impact. Thank you.
Call me a reprobate romantic on a soap box. What I find so frustrating (and dishonest) about the AI-rhetoric is the obfuscation of using “AI”. It has no epistemological precision and that’s the point. Much as terms like “cloud”, AI hides the fact there is a mass infrastructure to these interfaces. Putting aside the debate whether the models being using can do what is claimed they can do and one day this God called GAI shall be summoned, or whether the economic model is sustainable considering the cost to train, run and maintain these models – putting all that aside I keep asking, why do we need this? It’s not just practicality. There’s also the ecological question. The amount of resources needed to do all this is staggering. And during a pivotal moment of the climate crisis. What is this idea of modernity being pitched here? Someone with a laptop can produce industrial scale art at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, incredible amounts of resources, displacements of large segments of the labor force, more political turmoil. But hey, that thing you made is sort of good. I welcome debate but as terms of duel I ban all phrases once used to defend crypto. Thus “democratization” and “gatekeeping” are banned from use.
Steven, have you read 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari? He has a section called, “Mozart & the machine” where he discusses algorithms and biotech monitoring your vitals and even your micro-expressions to create the perfect playlist after, let’s say, a horrific breakup. It plays songs to match the stages of grief. It then will throw a brand new song to you in the mix to seem more like a real DJ. With this route, before long, one won’t even know the names of artists, song titles, or even what they like because AI chose it for them. Corrupt record or music biz will continue to exploit this by cheating the algorithm for more plays and exposure of their repped artists. They’ll find cheap machine replacements who learn every note and instrument in a few hours versus human singer-songwriters that typically play one or two well. I digress…
AI may very well mimic human emotions and intuition, but AI can’t be lovably imperfect. I’m sure you can set a sliding scale to be 60% or 80% just like one can with quantizing MIDI in their DAW so it doesn’t sound like a robot played the piano.
Perhaps what makes humans wonderful are our imperfections. Those squeaky fret sounds on the strings when our callouses hurt. The semi-flat or sharp notes that give Adele or Neil Young their signature vocal.
It’s all overwhelming, and again, Yavari Noah Harari talks about our minds “snapping” during this new era…humans need stories to make sense of this! It’s all happening way too fast for my liking.
And I’m also 100% team human. I like people’s imperfections and the randomness of my friends. And whatever future tech is selling me, I’m good in the dirty gutter with the other “romantic dogs” to quote the late great Roberto Bolano.
I understand the trepidation. The future is undetermined and is a screen for ppl to project their unease into the future. Something about AI tips into a deep cultural imagination around science fiction and long list of atrocities of the modern era – the economic collapses, the wars, the demagogues, the pandemics. The idea that computers are prisons and not portals to liberation is a legitimate source of terror. I feel it l. You feel it. We all feel it. Maybe because I studied history it was drilled in me that historians can’t and shouldn’t predict the future. And from my limited knowledge of math and science even know that fields like probability are much more philosophically complicated than at first glance. What does it mean to say something is likely or possible? Philosophically you hit big epistemological and ontological hurdles. Personally I have this great skepticism around this cottage industry of TED talkers, YouTube pundits, and just straight-up grifters that emerge out of this academic-entertainment-industrial complex. I’m not familiar with Yuval Noah Harari’s work. But the cycle is always the same. A book from an academic is published through a major publication, say Random House. Because this isn’t an academic journal there is absolutely no fact-checking. The book roams freely in disciplines. Subsequent articles emerge from leading academics in the fields criticize the sloppiness of the book. No one reads these criticisms. Said author gets invited to Davos to kick-it with Bill Gates. Then somehow they end up on a plane called the Lolita Express and promote crypto. Just searching “Yuval Harari criticism” did that (minus the Epstein connection). The great sociologist Pierre Bourdieu was very critical of the “total intellectuals” of his era – that is, those who presented themselves are authorities on all topics for a mass audience. It’s one thing to shoot the shit amongst friends and comment sections. But to do so for a mass audience. That is is an ethical lapse. Within the social matrix of tech there are definitely bad faith actors manipulating ppl. The ppl who gave us crypto are now giving us promises about one day summoning a god called general artificial intelligence (AGI). And now the entire media is discussing it with ppl making great media careers out of it. There are a lot of things to be afraid of and to watch unfortunately. But such predictions…when my GPS doesn’t send me into alleys, then I’ll worry about bio-algorithms.
Mad respect for this comment!! “Personally I have this great skepticism around this cottage industry of TED talkers, YouTube pundits, and just straight-up grifters that emerge out of this academic-entertainment-industrial complex.”
I admire freethinking. Thank you for such a thoughtful response.
appreciate the compliment. But personally I’m much less satisfied with my jaded response. Getting ahold of the past 2 decades’ series of crises has my mind at the limit. I’m about ready to retreat to a zen monastery and spend the next few years in meditation lol. Be gone cruel world!
Two years ago, I went on a week-long yoga retreat. I imagine a meditative retreat would be even better because there will be less talking and less people therefore less stimuli so one can truly reset the nervous system.
I ate, slept, and thought more clean & clearly than ever. I blame the good beta waves. 🌊 The week I got back, I had emergency surgery removing a large tumor from my orbital. If it weren’t for the retreat, I truly think I would have panicked. I learned for once in my life how to breathe with intention.
When the outside world is a lot to process, the stoics taught us to focus inward. I’m trying to get there…or is it letting go to get there? Just be. Maybe one day I’ll get it right…til then…I fall 298762 times and get up 298763. 😂
Thank you for the interview with Rick. In regards to AI, it would be great if the copyright is protected for the artists that are being learned from and that an AI disclosure is included for every piece that uses it. More organic intelligence, please. LOL
I appreciate the deep dive into humanities & history comparing generational cycles and other artworks with our current “music culture”. Our sad political landscape here in the states, combined with out-of-touch elitism in the fine arts (I cannot stand some of what constitutes as modern conceptual art), architecture vs. cookie-cutter suburban homes or generic buildings (bring back Classical, Neo, or even Art Deco as a celebration), superhero cash cows, and finally music. Music. I have detoxed from the obnoxious advertisements on streaming platforms. I’m back to collecting vinyl and CDs from my local library. I’m rediscovering some great composers. I was listening to Beethoven’s Pastoral today with goosebumps. Imagining the birdsong and thunderstorms he so brilliantly translated into song for us. I’m not counterculture, but I’m into boundaries these days. I am so sick and tired of this loud hustle culture in music. I am stepping back to fall in love with music again. Sorry this rant is so long!
Moving video with two very interesting musicians!!
There might be 60-70 year cycles, but also longer cycles of cultural and civilizational rise and fall. We're at the end of the latter cycles now, imo -- the Fall of the West, basically.
Saw this yesterday on Rick's YouTube channel. It's as good an analysis of the current state of the music business as you're likely to hear. It's about 90 minutes give or take, but well worth the investment of your time and attention.
His first video is how I found you, and I just finished and thoroughly enjoyed “…a subversive history”.
PS - That's how I originally found Ted as well - from his 1st Beato talk. I'll be checking it out shortly. I usually check out Rick's channel every few days to see who he has been talking to. He has been on a very good roll recently
Same here.
This is the best video interview on the whole Internet/YouTube. It should be shown in schools and college courses, under the title: “The rise of the New Romantics”, on how 2 brilliant and creative minds can make magic happen in front of a coffee cup by talking about their passions and life long experiences bringing wisdom to everyone.
The interview was superb. Rick didn't need to ask much since you had so much to say.
Yep. Listened to it. That is why I am here.
Great discussion. Particularly the over-extension of a trend. The rubber band snaps back hard.
Boris, when will it snap back?! I sure hope it is tomorrow. 🎶
There are cycles in everything. There are cycles in the weather, the economy, the sun, wars, geological formations, atomic vibrations, climate, human moods, the motions of the planets, populations of animals, the occurrence of diseases, the prices of commodities and shares and the large scale structure of the universe. None of these are independent of each other. Research shows that very different disciplines often find the same cycle periods in their data. The inter-relatedness of all things is an idea who's time has come. The study of cycles is an excellent way to understand this because the periods of cycles are as easy to recognize as fingerprints or DNA sequences. Teds's talent stack is amazing and he figured this out!!
For everything there is a season!
I'll resist laying it on thick by saying things like "Holy Shit! My favorite all-in-one producer, musician, and interviewer interviewing an insightful and passionate author with an encyclopedic knowledge of music, who also happens to publish my favorite newsletter? WTF is happening?!?".
So: Wow, sounds great! Looking forward to watching. Thank you. 😄
Loved it. Still have about 30 minutes left. As a dedicated reader, I was familiar with many of the points you made, but it was still great to hear you make them in person.
Fantastic interview, Ted. I rank both you and Rick at the top of the "micro-culture" list of influencers for today's musicians. Question for you Ted: The more I think on it, the more I'm incensed that there are currently no consumer protection laws that require open disclosure of A.I. used in art creation. As a consumer, I am adamant in not wanting to support any art, music or literature that was created by A.I. rather than a human. However, these tech companies are more than willing to use deceptive practices against consumers by implying that a piece of art, music or literature was human created by using pseudo creator names rather than indicating "created by A.I.". I feel that as consumers (and artists) we need to become organized and pro-active in demanding consumer protection laws against deceptive A.I. created works of art, music and literature. Would you be willing to write a piece that offers suggestions on how best your readers can pro-actively lobby for this type of consumer protection laws? Coming from you, this could have a broad reach and impact. Thank you.
Call me a reprobate romantic on a soap box. What I find so frustrating (and dishonest) about the AI-rhetoric is the obfuscation of using “AI”. It has no epistemological precision and that’s the point. Much as terms like “cloud”, AI hides the fact there is a mass infrastructure to these interfaces. Putting aside the debate whether the models being using can do what is claimed they can do and one day this God called GAI shall be summoned, or whether the economic model is sustainable considering the cost to train, run and maintain these models – putting all that aside I keep asking, why do we need this? It’s not just practicality. There’s also the ecological question. The amount of resources needed to do all this is staggering. And during a pivotal moment of the climate crisis. What is this idea of modernity being pitched here? Someone with a laptop can produce industrial scale art at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, incredible amounts of resources, displacements of large segments of the labor force, more political turmoil. But hey, that thing you made is sort of good. I welcome debate but as terms of duel I ban all phrases once used to defend crypto. Thus “democratization” and “gatekeeping” are banned from use.
Steven, have you read 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari? He has a section called, “Mozart & the machine” where he discusses algorithms and biotech monitoring your vitals and even your micro-expressions to create the perfect playlist after, let’s say, a horrific breakup. It plays songs to match the stages of grief. It then will throw a brand new song to you in the mix to seem more like a real DJ. With this route, before long, one won’t even know the names of artists, song titles, or even what they like because AI chose it for them. Corrupt record or music biz will continue to exploit this by cheating the algorithm for more plays and exposure of their repped artists. They’ll find cheap machine replacements who learn every note and instrument in a few hours versus human singer-songwriters that typically play one or two well. I digress…
AI may very well mimic human emotions and intuition, but AI can’t be lovably imperfect. I’m sure you can set a sliding scale to be 60% or 80% just like one can with quantizing MIDI in their DAW so it doesn’t sound like a robot played the piano.
Perhaps what makes humans wonderful are our imperfections. Those squeaky fret sounds on the strings when our callouses hurt. The semi-flat or sharp notes that give Adele or Neil Young their signature vocal.
It’s all overwhelming, and again, Yavari Noah Harari talks about our minds “snapping” during this new era…humans need stories to make sense of this! It’s all happening way too fast for my liking.
And I’m also 100% team human. I like people’s imperfections and the randomness of my friends. And whatever future tech is selling me, I’m good in the dirty gutter with the other “romantic dogs” to quote the late great Roberto Bolano.
Yessss!!! Exactly.
I understand the trepidation. The future is undetermined and is a screen for ppl to project their unease into the future. Something about AI tips into a deep cultural imagination around science fiction and long list of atrocities of the modern era – the economic collapses, the wars, the demagogues, the pandemics. The idea that computers are prisons and not portals to liberation is a legitimate source of terror. I feel it l. You feel it. We all feel it. Maybe because I studied history it was drilled in me that historians can’t and shouldn’t predict the future. And from my limited knowledge of math and science even know that fields like probability are much more philosophically complicated than at first glance. What does it mean to say something is likely or possible? Philosophically you hit big epistemological and ontological hurdles. Personally I have this great skepticism around this cottage industry of TED talkers, YouTube pundits, and just straight-up grifters that emerge out of this academic-entertainment-industrial complex. I’m not familiar with Yuval Noah Harari’s work. But the cycle is always the same. A book from an academic is published through a major publication, say Random House. Because this isn’t an academic journal there is absolutely no fact-checking. The book roams freely in disciplines. Subsequent articles emerge from leading academics in the fields criticize the sloppiness of the book. No one reads these criticisms. Said author gets invited to Davos to kick-it with Bill Gates. Then somehow they end up on a plane called the Lolita Express and promote crypto. Just searching “Yuval Harari criticism” did that (minus the Epstein connection). The great sociologist Pierre Bourdieu was very critical of the “total intellectuals” of his era – that is, those who presented themselves are authorities on all topics for a mass audience. It’s one thing to shoot the shit amongst friends and comment sections. But to do so for a mass audience. That is is an ethical lapse. Within the social matrix of tech there are definitely bad faith actors manipulating ppl. The ppl who gave us crypto are now giving us promises about one day summoning a god called general artificial intelligence (AGI). And now the entire media is discussing it with ppl making great media careers out of it. There are a lot of things to be afraid of and to watch unfortunately. But such predictions…when my GPS doesn’t send me into alleys, then I’ll worry about bio-algorithms.
Mad respect for this comment!! “Personally I have this great skepticism around this cottage industry of TED talkers, YouTube pundits, and just straight-up grifters that emerge out of this academic-entertainment-industrial complex.”
I admire freethinking. Thank you for such a thoughtful response.
appreciate the compliment. But personally I’m much less satisfied with my jaded response. Getting ahold of the past 2 decades’ series of crises has my mind at the limit. I’m about ready to retreat to a zen monastery and spend the next few years in meditation lol. Be gone cruel world!
Do it!!
Two years ago, I went on a week-long yoga retreat. I imagine a meditative retreat would be even better because there will be less talking and less people therefore less stimuli so one can truly reset the nervous system.
I ate, slept, and thought more clean & clearly than ever. I blame the good beta waves. 🌊 The week I got back, I had emergency surgery removing a large tumor from my orbital. If it weren’t for the retreat, I truly think I would have panicked. I learned for once in my life how to breathe with intention.
When the outside world is a lot to process, the stoics taught us to focus inward. I’m trying to get there…or is it letting go to get there? Just be. Maybe one day I’ll get it right…til then…I fall 298762 times and get up 298763. 😂
Thank you for the interview with Rick. In regards to AI, it would be great if the copyright is protected for the artists that are being learned from and that an AI disclosure is included for every piece that uses it. More organic intelligence, please. LOL
I appreciate the deep dive into humanities & history comparing generational cycles and other artworks with our current “music culture”. Our sad political landscape here in the states, combined with out-of-touch elitism in the fine arts (I cannot stand some of what constitutes as modern conceptual art), architecture vs. cookie-cutter suburban homes or generic buildings (bring back Classical, Neo, or even Art Deco as a celebration), superhero cash cows, and finally music. Music. I have detoxed from the obnoxious advertisements on streaming platforms. I’m back to collecting vinyl and CDs from my local library. I’m rediscovering some great composers. I was listening to Beethoven’s Pastoral today with goosebumps. Imagining the birdsong and thunderstorms he so brilliantly translated into song for us. I’m not counterculture, but I’m into boundaries these days. I am so sick and tired of this loud hustle culture in music. I am stepping back to fall in love with music again. Sorry this rant is so long!
Moving video with two very interesting musicians!!
This was a fantastic hour and a half.
Thanks Ted!
A truly great interview, Ted.
You and Rick are heroes, my friend.
There might be 60-70 year cycles, but also longer cycles of cultural and civilizational rise and fall. We're at the end of the latter cycles now, imo -- the Fall of the West, basically.
Ted's articles are always a "will-read" for me.
As with Rick's videos, which are always a "will-watch."
Ted on Rick's show is a "drop everything immediately because this is the entirety of your new to-do list for the next hour."
Really enjoyed the discussion this time around.
Saw this yesterday on Rick's YouTube channel. It's as good an analysis of the current state of the music business as you're likely to hear. It's about 90 minutes give or take, but well worth the investment of your time and attention.