Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
This speculative question comes from the title of Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel about artificial intelligence. Specifically about androids who are so sophisticated they can move thru society as fully human.
More than clever word play “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” raises provocative questions about the future of artificial intelligence: How like their creators might androids become? Will they become sentient? Will they be less human or maybe more human; and, how might that change our definition of humanity? Will they evolve beyond their programming? Will they be ethical and might those ethics conflict with our well being? Who will police Asimov’s 3 rules? From this initial question comes a quagmire of possibility and responsibility for the future.
My co-workers are obsessed with the potential applications for Artificial Intelligence in our schools and our conversations about its upsides and downsides have inspired me to write some lessons for a cartooning class I teach that will use the AI program ChatGPT.
The students write down settings, characters, goals, and obstacles that I collect and then randomly mix and match in a basket to input into the program. I then ask the program to use them to write a script for a four panel comic with a funny punchline. The programs conversational ease and sophistication really feels like we are collaborating with another human and not just a language calculator. The results even make me and the students laugh out loud. They’re motivated, and we vote for the best script to illustrate.
A wildly successful foray into Artificial Intelligence and I’m sure just a “slippery slope” away from writing an opera.
To my delight the program also wrote a formal lesson plan for me faster than I could type the prompt. I think this is okay!? I’m not writing my lesson plan to win the Nobel or be a New York Times best seller. For something like a lesson plan (an administrative formality) I’m glad I can free up my work-time for other priorities. For example using my time to ask the ChatGPT program to write me a joke about a sheep who can sing opera:
Why did the sheep become an opera singer?
Because it had a “shear” talent for hitting high notes.
As useful a tool it is for certain projects, I don’t think it’s for all projects. When I compare my own writing in this blog to the savvy artificial intelligence I begin to love my own writing even more. My incongruities, wild tangents, grammatical inconsistencies, and wonky structures are uniquely my own. The program might write like a human, maybe more human, certainly more “correct,” but it’s not this human. Style isn’t found in good writing or mimicry, personal style is found where the rules bend and break in a consistently inconsistent incongruous way where other messy incongruent minds can find mutual understanding. To use it for this opera project I would be cheating myself not only the opportunity to explore my own humanity, but also the pleasure of reliving a wonderful adventure.
The book, the conversations, the jokes, and the lessons are all leading to an awesome opera idea that I guess really began and were inspired by a show in New York.
The off-broadway show I saw with Chaltin was titled “Artificial Flavors” from Steve Cosson’s theater company “Civillians.”
The show didn’t ask the program to write a comic but to write a broadway musical and then in real time the script was uploaded to the actors who improvised a musical from the script. The show changes every night depending on prompts from the audience and AI’s response.
The show was predictably hilarious, but also surprisingly thoughtful and forward thinking and the final song of the evening has stayed with me. The singers voices detach from their bodies but continue to be conscious sharing their thoughts and ideas infinitely. Who knows maybe when the aliens from Betelgeuse arrive, even if we’re gone, they might find our voices and ideas running in androids. The heart of “Humanity” perpetuating in a different iteration.
I’d like to run with this thought longer and delve into how our most current technologies parallel questions from Buddhism on the likes of ego and permanence… but before I get too detached from my core thesis here…
I wrote a f@#$%$# opera!
After enjoying so many operas as a spectator, I definitely thought along the way that I would like to write my own libretto and collaborate with a musician to put music to my words. But where to begin?
To write an opera.
Difficult.
To let ChatGPT write it for me.
Lazy.
But, maybe?
What if the content of my opera fit this exciting moment of Artificial Intelligence perfectly and what if I could find the perfect book to base my opera on?
Only if there was a book out there that I loved and was also about artificial intelligence. It makes me dreamy just thinking about it.
I could write some parts and let ChatGPT write other parts to make the perfect meta-opera. The audience would become a living Turin Test looking for evidence of which parts of the libretto are written by me and which parts written by the AI program; ultimately bringing into question the notion of authenticity and authorship in creating a stand-alone work of art in the 21st century. Boohyah!
If only there was a book that fit my criteria to base the opera on?
I’m being facetious, of course; we both know the perfect book!
The opera I wrote is based on Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” which believe it or not, I’m not making this up, has an android character pretending to be a superstar opera singer.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep:
Act I
(The curtain is closed, but off stage we hear the distant voice of a chorus).
Emigrate Chorus:
♪ Emigrate or degenerate, the choice is yours,
In a world of shadows.
Slowly we drift, to stars,
Embrace the decision, before it’s too late. ♪
♪ Emigrate or degenerate, echoes in the night,
A choice unfolds, in shadows and in light.
In slow refrain, we drift to mars,
The choice is yours. ♪
(Two sheep enter opposite sides of the stage and meet in the middle. They turn around pulling the curtains with them to the edges of the stage)
Scene 1:
*(Iran Deckard is sitting on the edge of a bed, a dead sheep by her feet. Rick Deckard walks in. He looks, walks past his wife and turns his wife’s mood dial, from sad to happy. She wants to be sad because her sheep died. In turn she turns her own dial back and his dial to sad. They continue manipulating each others mood dial until they collapse onto their beds.
(Recitative 1 – Rick)
“Why would you schedule a depression?
“why did you schedule that?”
(Recitative 2 – Rachael)
“He’s gone, what’s left?”
(Recitative 1 – Rick)
“But a mood like that,” Rick said, “you’re apt to stay in it, not dial your way out. Despair like that, about total reality, is self-perpetuating.”
I’ll make more money, I’ll replace the sheep.
(Recitative 2 – Rachael)
It’s not the sheep.
(Recitative 1 – Rick)
I’ll replace the sheep.
(Recitative 2 – Rachael)
They’re 5,000 that’s too much
(Recitative 1 – Rick)
We could emigrate
(Recitative 2 – Rachael)
It’s too late
(Iran stands up and turns her mood dial back to sad)
First Duet – In style of “I Feel Pretty,” but interspersed with discordant wobbly orchestra.
(Verse 1 – Rick)
♪ I feel dreary, oh so weary,
Turning dials,
In this world of electric sheep,
Our secrets keep. ♪
(Verse 1 – Rachael)
♪ I feel gloomy, skies so gray,
Lost my sheep,
He turns my dial, from sad to cheer,
But I crave sadness dear,♪
(Chorus – Together)
♪ Dial dancing, mood enhancing,
Emotions twirl, our hearts entrancing.
In this duet of (Rick) joy and (Rachael) sorrow,
We play with feelings, today and tomorrow. ♪
(Verse 2 – Rick)
♪ She was sad, I wanted bliss,
Twist the dial, share a kiss.
But her sheep, a memory stark,
Turn the dial, we leave the dark. ♪
(Verse 2 – Rachael)
♪ His heart aches, a somber tune,
In the dial’s dance, a love commune.
I turn him sad, he turns me glad,
A mood duet, what could be more sad? ♪
(Bridge – Together)
♪ Mood dial waltz, a delicate trance,
A dance of feelings, a sheared romance
Happy and sad,
In this duet, we let emotions guide. ♪
(Chorus – Together)
♪ Dial dancing, mood enhancing,
Emotions twirl, our hearts entrancing.
In this duet of (Rick) joy and (Rachael) sorrow,
We play with feelings, today and tomorrow. ♪
(Outro – Together)
♪ Mood dial symphony, a tender art,
Two souls entwined, never apart.
In the electric dreams we weave,
Our hearts, the mood dial does weave. ♪
♪ But then I realize, the dial’s cruel twist,
Sensing life’s absence, in shadows we exist.
Not just in this building, but everywhere, you see,
A dance of numbness, devoid of glee. ♪
Bah, my sweet one
Bye
(Off stage singing is heard first distant then close. They look up and their duet ends. They listen).
Bounty Chorus:
♪ Androids from Mars, a thumping sound,
A thousand bucks, each bounty found.
Catch them all, claim your fate,
The future’s key, behind the gate. ♪
♪ Androids from Mars, the chase is on,
A bounty awaits, a future dawn.
Thumping beats, in the hunter’s score,
Claim your prize, forevermore. ♪
Bounty Chorus:
♪ Androids from Mars, a thumping sound,
A thousand bucks, each bounty found.
Catch them all, claim your fate,
The future’s key, behind the gate. ♪
♪ Androids from Mars, the chase is on,
A bounty awaits, a future dawn.
Thumping beats, in the hunter’s score,
Claim your prize, forevermore. ♪
(Rick stands up, grabs a gun, and walks to the door to leave).
(Recitative 1 – Rick)
We’ll be happy.
I’ll get a new sheep.
(Rick leaves and Rachael remains on the bed and turns the dial back to sad)
(Recitative 2 – Raechael)
It’ll be too late
Emigrate and Bounty Chorus Cross-wired:
♪ Emigrate or degenerate, the choice is yours,
In a world of shadows, where hope explores.
Slowly we drift, like the whispers of fate,
Embrace the decision, before it’s too late. ♪
♪ Androids from Mars, a thumping sound,
A thousand bucks, each bounty found.
Catch them all, claim your fate,
The future’s key, behind the gate. ♪
♪ Emigrate or degenerate, echoes in the night,
A choice unfolds, in shadows and in light.
In slow refrain, as time silently soars,
The path ahead, the choice is yours. ♪
♪ Androids from Mars, the chase is on,
A bounty awaits, a future dawn.
Thumping beats, in the hunter’s score,
Claim your prize, forevermore. ♪
To Be Continued….
In a theater near you!
Notes:
The show with “civilians” begins like my lesson with him taking suggestions from the audience to be used within one of three plots. We in the audience clap between three potential plots for the musical: A treasure hunt, a fetishist convention, or lost in the jungle. The actress Susan Celik uses her elbow and arm to make a sound meter that rises and falls with our applause. You can imagine which option the audience chooses.He then put all the info into the Chat GPT and then in real time uses the program to write a script for a broadway musical based on our suggestions. The script is then projected behind us and onto the actor’s tablets. The performers give voice, melody, and harmony to the lyrics generated by the artificial intelligence program while Dan Lipton improvises a score on the keyboard.The show is a raunchy fun-fest showcasing that these folks are so versed and practiced in performance that they can wing an improvisational musical on the spot night after night and it be super fun like that old show “Who’s line is it anyway.”
when electric sheep cannot sleep, what might they dream?