When robots dream, they dream they’re dancing!
A.I is on the march and coming for your job!
We’ve been hearing this the last couple of years. And while the optimist in me hopes that A.I isn’t going to take jobs so much as dramatically re-define them, I’m likely being naïve, as seismic shifts are already being felt.
Looking ahead, things are likely to get far more disrupted. The coming of A.I coupled with advancements in robotics will see industries that rely on people transitioning to robots. If a robot can clean a house, wait on people, mix drinks, make cloths, or serve at a store more efficiently – lower costs over the lifetime of the robot versus a human - and perhaps effectively – a complete database of all product information to draw on, delivered in multiple languages, and never tiring - then it’s only a matter of time before businesses transition.
And yet, it’s not only lower paid jobs at risk. Lawyers, doctors, accountants, and even surgeons and pilots – to name a few – are positions that may be, not merely enhanced, but replaced by a combination of A.I and Robotics.
What about sports, you might ask?
Robots will soon – if they can’t already in some spheres - run and swim faster, jump higher, throw further, and punch harder than humans and so it’s conceivable that we might start to engage with a Robot Olympic Games, watching competing brands and countries pitting their hardware and software against each other. A Robot Olympic Games might become as engaging - perhaps more engaging - then watching humans, particularly because in the first decades there will likely be exponential advances made between intervening games, leading to greater drama than can be delivered by humans, which are making incremental gains at best. And while the stories of suffering, hard work, passion, and sacrifice won’t engage us in the same way, no doubt we’ll learn about the stories of those behind the hardware and software, the teams and individuals, which may yield stories as engaging once in the hands of entertainment juggernauts.
Yet at least creativity is safe! But is it?
Not so long ago, writers in Hollywood went on strike to stop or slow the advent of A.I into the writing process, yet the truth is it’s inevitable. A.I can and will increasingly write scripts, novels, songs and symphonies. Further, A.I will create digital art, make films from scratch, and design buildings, bridges and whole communities etc.
Almost no aspect will remain immune from the touch of A.I and advanced robotics. Except perhaps dance, and more specifically, ballet.
Tell A.I they’re dreamin’
For now, and for some time to come dance will likely be one of the last holdouts against A.I and robotics. A.I already exists that is smarter than any single human, and will soon be smarter than all humans combined, and while advancements in robotics is rapid, and they can already do many athletic feats (see Boston Dynamics on Instagram) there remains a rigidity to their movement, a lack of elegance, and little improvisational ability.
Because movement, more than learning maths, legal jargon or constructing narratives is hard. Before consciousness, preceding intelligence, there was movement. Our movement is the product of - and dance is the movement apotheosis of - 4.5 billion years of evolution. Dance is rich in complexity, layered in nuance, structured in subtlety, textured with culturally specific body language passed down over generations, demanding on countless coordinated networks, a creative expression of whole-body movement in the moment and, for the time being at least, impossible for A.I and robotics to come near replicating.
And if robotics does come close to replicating the unique balance of athleticism, grace, strength and frailty of individual human movement, it’ll still be lacking the impromptu spontaneousness of responding to music and the atmosphere of a room – the audience/performer relationship – that makes each dance performance so compelling, and a lived experience.
Long after A.I and robotics have mastered and superseded lawyers, doctors, pilots, writers, and even sports and athletics, dancers will be engaging and moving us with their grace, elegance, strength, creativity and spark in the moment.
Whether you’re a dancer or a dance educator, value this artform and what you’re providing. For dance will be the last of industries re-shaped by A.I and robotics and a bastion where, transcending our existential angst, our species marvels and embraces in the joy of being fully human.
-Josef Brown
Managing Director of The Library Aesthetic
Relations & Development Director at MDM
*Authors note: this article was written without any A.I assistance. Judge that how you will …