I keep saying to myself I should write something about my work and my creative pursuits on this blog but it always ends up being personal or spiritual things… Ahhh well, I promise the next post will be more music related! Exciting things are happening!

As I watch how children are being raised, raise 2 sons of my own, and work with young students in the studio, this topic of being accustomed to hardship keeps weighing on my mind.

Baha’is believe in becoming accustomed to hardship at a young age.

“Let them share in every new and rare and wondrous craft and art. Bring them up to work and strive, and accustom them to hardship. Teach them to dedicate their lives to matters of great import, and inspire them to undertake studies that will benefit mankind.” – Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 129.

Evidence for the importance and benefit of this is all around us. We live on a planet in an environment where new land is born as a result of tectonic plates that when colliding with each other erupt in fire!

The strongest, most successful and capable people are rarely those who have had an easy life. Humans were designed to become stronger and more capable as a result of tests and difficultes. But what I see especially in China is children who are catered to and pampered every hour of the day by multiple people and are given whatever they want when they demand it. The results are young adults who have a very difficult time doing anything on their own without having their hand held all the time, speaking from my personal experience working with interns and university or college graduates in my studio. But this is definitely not a China problem, this is been going on for decades in Western countries as well. 

This was not a big deal in the past, When we were simply competing with each other, but now, human beings are not only entering maturity, they are competing against machines that can learn 100 times faster than they can, and are far more capable because they don’t get tired, have a bad day, get emotional or sick, feel brain fog because of that huge gluten and meat heavy lunch, or were fed too much canned food or breathed in toxic pollution as a child. Machines are essentially perfect and we are far from it.

If you’re one of the many who think reaction to progress and the latest development of AI is exaggerated do a bit of research online and take a look at what it can do already. Just as an example in my own industry, Google wave net audio can analyse a persons voice and in less than 10 hours perfectly emulate their speech. 

Beyond just having to think about competing with these incredibly capable and quickly adapting machines, don’t you think it’s about time human beings elevate their capabilities and resilience to a much higher level than that of an adult baby?

Or maybe you prefer someone having to hold your child’s hand when they’re a fully grown adult long after your dead and gone? How many educated people do you know these days that would want to and have time to do this in addition to managing their own lives?
Maybe a machine will do it for you, but what kind of world will that be?

Don’t get me wrong, I believe we are here to assist and serve others, but not at the expense of much necessary human progress and evolution.

I’ve always been intrigued with the concept of having personal feelings for a machine. I’m not sure what sci fi experience started it, probably Star Wars, back when my parents took me with them to see it in 1977 in the theatre (yeah, that’s right, I’m kinda old). Then again with Blade Runner. I became fully aware of my fascination with feelings for a machine with the Kubrick/Spielberg movie AI which despite much hatred amongst most who viewed it, I loved. I vowed to see everything that Haley Joel Osment acted in since that movie. I also studied the idea further in the book “The Age Of Spiritual Machines” by music technology genius and futurist, Ray Kurzweil, who’s philosophies I only partly agree with.

It requires true talent for a director to make you have feelings for a machine, and they’ve done it again in Wall-E, the latest hit from Pixar. I was amazed at how the movie not only gives you empathy for a machine, but makes you forget your watching animation despite it being sci fi.

So another brilliant hit for Pixar (Disney’s just along for the ride), so that makes, what NINE hits? Every single movie Pixar has made has been a huge success. How can they sustain that when all the major studios fail?  If you ask Bob Lefsetz, he’ll tell you it’s because of a dedication to, a focus on, only one thing, quality.  EXCELLENCE! They don’t copy others, they don’t use cliches, they want nothing but to be the very best at what they do, and so they are. One could say it’s easy in a world overrun with mediocrity and people who are satisfied with making a quick buck. But it also takes the will and creativity and desire to do something a little different from everyone else, to take risks, but put your all into it, your best.

Will and Creativity are two things that have been sorely lacking in the music industry for some time. And that’s exactly what it desperately needs right now. But things are changing fast (unless you work for a large music corporation.)