That's a pretty misleading headline. The news article is about a cool art installation, in which an artist has used a deceased composer's DNA to produce electrical signals that are interpreted as music. Still cool, but it's not "composing music" in the same sense as the alive musician was composing music.
this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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It's about as close to composing as transcribing the twitches of someone with Parkinson's.
About as respectful as well, if the researcher is the person characterising this process as composing.
It seems to be the journalist presenting it as such, but in any case, I don't think the artists are suggesting it's equivalent to what the guy made when he was alive. It's an interesting artwork riffing off of the fact that the person whom the DNA belonged to was a musician. That also seems like a pretty disrespectful way to talk about people with Parkinson's.
I'm referring to completely involuntary movements... Characterising any involuntary, debilitating phenomenon as intentional or artistic is gross.
Characterising involuntary but normal phenomenon as intentional or artistic is maybe a little less gross, but still asinine.
I understand why you think it's offensive, that's fine.
I know what you mean; I think it would be hurtful to people with Parkinson's, but whatever, I luckily don't have Parkinson's so not much point arguing it.
Characterising involuntary but normal phenomenon as intentional or artistic is maybe a little less gross, but still asinine.
That seems like a very bizarre take. Isn't that a very common artistic device, to find creative interpretations of natural phenomena, and to imagine intention where there is none? I mean, art is subjective so maybe that's just your personal taste, but it seems like a strange thing to be offended by to me.
Interpretations are intentional, transformative etc.
Automating that is not.
How is it not transformative and intentional to reinterpret neurological signals as music?
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Black Mirror. Should. Not. Be. A. Roadmap.
Cunk on Earth also did a similar bit with Beethoven.
Does Charlie Brooker have some kind of enchanted typewriter that can influence the world or something?
Hell may exist only in our imagination, but humans have this uncanny ability to create what they can imagine
Some brain cells cobbled together from stem cells that have his DNA. None of the life experiences that made his music. You could likely get similar results with the same technique using the DNA of any random person on the street.
Even Abby Normal?
You're telling me you used an Abnormal brain?
I hope to all holy fuck it’s not conscious.
"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream"
I had no idea that he wrote any horror… but that’s a pretty cool story
A lot of his stuff is very dark
This for instance
It's a few cerebral cells across a mesh-- I think achieving consciousness needs a bit more than that
I think achieving consciousness needs a bit more than that
Good thing nobody knows for sure!
Well, we do know for sure it'd take more than this. We don't know what it would take, but this is far beyond the minimum it could take. If that's all it is then almost every form of life on Earth would have to be assumed to be conscious.
(Sentience is actually the word we are talking about).
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Don't worry too much, it's not even part of his actual brain. It's a bunch of random brain cells grown from a DNA sample.
If we could make new conscious lifeforms from this, Blade Runner would be a documentary already.
according to the article it's a tiny smattering of brain cells grown from stem cells derived from his blood, which he donated before he died specifically for this experiment. it is in no way conscious.
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They grew a brain organoid from his donated blood white cells that they turned into stem cells. The brain organoid produces electric impulses because that's what brain cells do. They made something artsy out of those impulses. So it's completely unrelated to whatever experience the musician could have had. DNA doesn't store acquired skills nor life memories. They could do that with anyone's cells and probably get a similar result.
Yeah, this was cool until all the steps show it's not "his brain". It's a genetic facsimile.
Not even a facsimile, just a thing which shares the same genetic code and doesn't resemble his developed brain in any but the most basic ways.
. DNA doesn’t store acquired skills nor life memories
Assassin's Creed wouldn't lie to me would it?
Quite the exaggerated headline from the look of it.
Yeah, I always want to clean up the headlines, but apparently it's against the rules.
The hard truth is that there are a lot of completely un-empathetic scientists out there.
Some of the shit I saw them doing to animals when I worked for Baxter still makes me sick when I think about it. And I only had to go into that lab a couple times.
It's just a few cells they created on a mesh, it's not like they're using a hunk of his brain.
Yeah and it was just a bunch of sedated live rats pinned to little trays with their brains exposed and a bunch of shit stuck everywhere into their bodies that I had to see while working on the lab computers.
I'm not going to get into an argument about whether there's value in animal research (I think there is) but there's some horrifying shit that comes with it, and I'm just pointing out that I've directly worked with plenty of scientists that are completely unfazed by that shit. So while it may be a few cells on a mesh now, they won't stop at that.
it is important to note that the article says that Alvin eagrly agreed to this experiment, and donated the blood for it. If that is true, then I don't see any ethical dillemma in here
That is an important point that I missed in what I read of the article before I got grossed out. Thanks. I'm still not sure about this line of research because if (when?) they do make something that achieves a level of sentience, consciousness, or even just the ability to feel, will it be able to signal to us that it is happy, content, in agony, mental anguish, etc? The thought of being trapped in that situation is terrifying.
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Shhhh! Don't interrupt him, he's decomposing.
This sounds like chatGPT with extra steps and body horror.
Storm of lying clickbait titles today.
I genuinely thought this was an Onion headline.
My Ashley O. doll is starting to glitch out a little. Should I be worried?
nervous laughter
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