We are increasingly likely to find ourselves in places with background music. No composers have thought to write for these modern spaces, which represent 30% of our musical experience.
Brian EnoRead
I'm struck by the insidious, computer-driven tendency to take things out of the domain of muscular activity and put them into the domain of mental activity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses concern about the shift from physical activities to mental tasks driven by computers.
Brian Eno highlights a growing trend where technology, particularly computers, reduces the need for physical engagement by placing tasks into a purely mental realm. This shift raises questions about human agency, the importance of bodily experience, and the implications for our emotional and cognitive well-being.
Themes
TechnologyMental ActivityPhysical ActivityAutomationComputer
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about modern technology's impact on society, one might say, 'As Brian Eno warned, we must be wary of the insidious, computer-driven tendency to shift our lives from physical engagement to mere mental processing.'
More from Brian Eno
All quotes βI think that technology is always invented for historical reasons, to solve a historical problem. But they very soon reveal themselves to be capable of doing things that aren't historical that nobody had ever thought of doing before.
Brian EnoRead
When I first started making ambient music, I was setting up systems using synthesizers that generated pulses more or less randomly. The end result is a kind of music that continuously changes. Of course, until computers came along, all I could actually present of that work was a piece of its output.
Brian EnoRead
People do dismiss ambient music, don't they? They call it 'easy listening,' as if to suggest that it should be hard to listen to.
Brian EnoRead
In the future, you won't buy artists' works; you'll buy software that makes original pieces of 'their' works, or that recreates their way of looking at things. You could buy a Shostakovich box, or you could buy a Brahms box. You might want some Shostakovich slow-movement-like music to be generated. So then you use that box.
Brian EnoRead
Ambient music must be as ignorable as it is interesting.
Brian EnoRead
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