The Ballet 50 years from now

[Guest nycdog]

Article on downloading a human mind to computer in the Guardian, UK

"'If you draw the timelines, realistically by 2050 we would expect to be able to download your mind into a machine, so when you die it's not a major career problem,' Pearson told The Observer. 'If you're rich enough then by 2050 it's feasible. If you're poor you'll probably have to wait until 2075 or 2080 when it's routine.'"

I was thinking, what will become of all art, dance, music, you name it, when your consciousness exists in a machine that will also give you instant access to the sum total of all knowledge and experience?

[bart]

Thanks, nycdog, for a great topic. You made me turn to some of the posts on a recent thread about arts criticism today. It's alarming to think that this kind of technology may now be added to the list of usual suspects (culture, educational levels, etc.) as we try to prepare ourselves for a future with radically different ideas about artistic creativity.

“suspected culprits include the culture of celebrity, anti-intellectual populism, stingy newspaper owners and what some critics say is a loss of vitality or visibility in their art forms.” Among other possible factors in the supposed weakening of the critic’s role in cultural taste making supposed, . . . Timberg points to the tarnishing of the press’s reputation in general, and to sites like Amazon.com with their searchable databases.

[Cliff]

I'd take those speculations with a boulder of salt. They assume that the next 50 years will see the same increase in computer power as the last 50 years. Which is doubtful; silicon chips are approaching physical limits and assorted alternatives remain unproven. Its misleading to show a graph of computer power without also providing a graph of Intel's expenditures on chip fabrication lines.

[dirac]

....when you die it's not a major career problem

Love it, just love it.

[hbl]

Well at the rate that Artificial Intelligence has been moving over the past 20 years, not to worry. It is unlikely that any such facility will be available in 50 years. They can't even do reasonably competent language translation yet. Face recognitiion is still very basic at best. So I would not worry about anything like that in the next 50 years. My guess not even in 100 and probably not in 200. Certainly not anything members of this list need worry about.

As for the more interesting point raised by the quote from KFW I think the role of the editor in society has largely diminished because of the Internet. We can readily get unfiltered information as well as all sorts of distored informaion within seconds of requesting it. The role of the editor (be it the TV producer, or the major newspaper and newsmagazines editorial staff) has seriously diminished. I think though that this will change over time. I think the value and need for good editorial (and critical) analysis will re-emerge - possibly in a different and less formal form. For example on this newsgroup, we get to appreciate some reviewers (Leigh for example) and discount others (like me). The criticism while generally unedited is balanced by multiple view points. Over time the better reviewers and critics will be heard. The same is true in the blogosphere. Over time the ones that merit attention will likely be heard. Or lets hope so. As far as the mass media go, it is unclear to me how they will evolve over the next 50 years. Of course I wont be around 50 years from now so it is not a major concern.

[danceintheblood]

I was told very positively 10 years ago by my IT mad husband that we would all be reading e-books by 2005 and book shops would become a thing of the past. Well ... I'm not one to say "I told you so" ... but ...

Take it with a grain of salt.

[BalletNut]

Interesting topic.

I'd like to think that, even in the event that downloading a person's entire mind were to become possible--not likely--people would not abandon ballet, choreography, or art as it exists today, because the creative process of experimentation, trial and error, and of watching one's own works take form in front of you surprising you along the way, is one of the great pleasures of art and choreography. Either that, or I'm a hopeless romantic. :nopity:

I'm young enough that it is entirely possible that I'll be around in 50 years, and my prediction is that I'll be one of those old farts shaking their head and saying sadly, "I remember Zakharova, Lacarra, Herrera, and Volochkova. Those were the days. They just don't make them like they used to..."

[carbro]

I have no doubt that one of the great pleasures in life is to see a body in motion. Not just the human body, but birds in flight, big cats chasing down prey, horses galloping toward the finish line. So we will always have theatrical dance. The question is, will it still be the academic discipline based on the vocabulary and technique that have been built over the past 400 years? Not very optimistic.

If ballet qua ballet is still here, it will have a very small niche market comprising old farts such as BalletNut and a couple hundred other BalletTalk posters. And yes, they'll be reminiscing wistfully about Bouder and Tidwell and Cojocaru and Sakurai.