Nothing and then ... something!
A man from the 1800s makes me feel better about my place in the 2020s.
“I began to play, and suddenly my wife interrupted by saying: ‘Edward, that’s a good tune. […] What is that?’
I answered, ‘Nothing — but something might be made of it.”
—Edward Elgar
While listening to the local classical music station last night, the host shared this story as an introduction to Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, which ClassicFM calls one of the “greatest of all English orchestral works.”
The thing to capture here for me is that as I also say this on Threads yesterday from a fellow writer and comic artist, Nathan Cayanan: “Just read a line written by AI for the Joker: ‘You drink water. I drink ANARCHY!’ I mean … I guess.”
This is also the week in October where I learned that multiple writers found out their books were used to train AI, and that one of the number wrote an article where they were OK with it. Because once writing is released into the world, it ceases to become solely yours (the artist’s); that’s his argument.
All this is to say, that with all my own reservations about AI tech, this comment from the late 1890s finally made a compelling case for its role in my creative life. Because something might be made of it. But I add this addition from my UX brain: My tools don’t define me; I define them. Also my strategy brain: We imbue data with its meaning. It still all comes back to us and how we decide to act.