Even in the early 1980's, I was equally entranced and suspicious of new technology. I suppose I was already reflecting, in however crude a manner, about what made us human, and what either assisted us or hindered us in the exercise of that humanity.
Back then, our elders complained about too much television, and what few will remember is how the Sony Walkman was criticized for isolating us from the people around us. The more things change, the more they stay the same, for now we might observe the role of the cellphone and the internet in replacing the world of the real with the world of the artificial.
My geeky friends and I would write programs in BASIC on the school's Apple II's, and we would speculate wildly about whether computers would someday take over the world. Our obsession with the film Terminator certainly didn't help. It might seem silly now, and yet we are still struggling with precisely those questions.
I listened to this track with those concerns in mind, and long before I heard that the song was based on a dream Howard Jones had, I felt it had a certain nightmarish quality.
As I grow older, I find that it makes little difference whether the technology involves banging together two rocks or constructing an android: whatever the tools at hand, how will a man choose to employ those tools?
Robots and so-called "artificial intelligence" aren't the problem—the presence or absence of wisdom and love in how we live is most assuredly the problem. A machine made to mimic a man will only be as good as the virtues of its creator.
—5/2007
A few words of commentary from Howard Jones:
And the song itself:
Howard Jones, "Automaton" from Dream into Action (1985)
With no past and no future
He seemed to know your dreams
Replace tears with laughter
Street corner whispers
Would mention his name
Selfish? Benevolent?
What was his game?
Some say he's perfect
Some say a spy
A hidden power
They all wonder why
The rumors mounted
But still no fact
I need to find out
Some say perfect hidden power
We all wonder why
Questions unanswered
Suspicion alerted
I went round to his place
It felt quite deserted
I climbed the stairs to where
His body lay without motion
No spirit lives in there
The cord had been broken
His skin was reptile
No life in there
Not young not old
A long hollow glare
His breath had stopped
No hearts beat there
Is this a man?
Should I believe hidden power?
They all wondered why
My attention was caught
By a sound from the door
Panic gripped the mind
What lay in store?
A being stared at me
Benevolent, not cold
Automaton—He is controlled
His skin was reptile. . . .
Automaton—No life in there
No past and no future
Is this a man?
Automaton—No life in there
No past and not future
Is this a man?
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