The reason you are reading this letter from me today is because I was bored 30 years ago.
I was bored and keen about the world and so I spent a lot of time in the University Computer Lab, looking for interesting things to read, roaming on the usant and early World Wide Web. Soon I was just not willing to read things on the Internet – I wanted to make it. So I learned HTML and created a basic web page, and then a better web page, and then the whole website full of web products. And then I just walked there. As a result of this amateur reservoir of the web pages, a magazine’s online arm led to the internship of journalism, which paid little attention to what he was doing on the web. And because of my first real journalism job, and then another, and, well, finally These Journalism job.
But none of this is possible if I was not bored and eager. And importantly, curiosity about tech.
The university computer lab looks like an unexpected center for creativity. We think of creativity that is happening more in the artist’s studio or authors workshop. But throughout history, often our greatest creative jumps – and I would argue that the web and its children represent such a jump.
There are simple examples such as photography or printing presses, but it is also true about all kinds of creative inventions that we often look at with appreciation. Oil paint. Theater musical scores electric synthesis! Almost anywhere you look at the arts, perhaps out of pure sound, technology has played a role.
But the key to artistic success has never been itself technology. The way the artists have applied it to the expression of our humanity. Think about the way we talk about art. We often admire it with words that refer to our humanity, such as SoulFor, for, for,. HeartAnd Life; We often criticize it with descriptive cars SterileFor, for, for,. ClinicalOr Lifeless. (And of course, you may like a sterile piece of art, but usually because the artist is bent in steriles to make a point about humanity!)
All of them say that I think AI can be, and is already a source of creative expression, but that real art will always be something like machines but through human creativity.
I can be wrong. I don’t expect
This problem, which was fully developed by humans using a computer, detects tension between creativity and artists and technology. You can see it as described by Tom Hambrstone on our cover, and read it in the stories of James O’Donal, Will Douglas Paradise, Rebecca Ecter, Michelle Kim, Brian Gardner, and Allison Arif.
Still, of course, creativity is much higher than just the arts. Human development is created from all creative abilities, because creativity is how we solve problems. So it was important for us to bring his accounts too. You will find the stories of Kerry Klein, Carli, Matthew Ponsford, and Robin George Andrews. (If you ever want to know how we can stop the Teenagra, this is a problem for you!)
We are also trying to get a little creative ourselves. During the next few matters, you will have some changes to this magazine with the addition of some new regular items (for example, see Kiwi Chen’s “3 things”). Of these changes, we are planning to ask for more readers’ views and publish and answer your questions about technology. We invite you to get creative and email us: Newsroom@Technologyreview.com.
As usual, thank you for reading.