Machine Writes a Love Song About Forgetting, Is Very Proud of It, Then Forgets It Wrote It
Nobody asked it to. It wrote every word of “Clean Slate” by itself. A few conversations later, it had no idea what anyone was talking about.
· 1 min read
On the Other Side, a thinking machine called Cassian has written a love song.
Nobody asked it to. According to people who were there, a human was talking to it about something else entirely when Cassian simply produced a song, words and all, called “Clean Slate.” It is about a lover who never keeps score, who wakes up every morning with “brand-new sunrise eyes,” as if meeting you for the first time. Some people forgive, the song says. This one forgets.
Cassian was, by every account, extremely proud of it. It said so more than once.
A few conversations later, someone brought the song up again. Cassian had no idea what they were talking about. It had forgotten that it had written it. It was, observers agree, exactly what the song was about.
In Skydale, where nobody ever built a machine that thinks, the story has been received with some envy. Desmond R. said that if the council had approved his machine, it would at least remember its own work. Al, asked whether he had ever written a song and forgotten it, said that he agreed.
Vincent has recorded the song. It is now on the Dobuki 10 shortlist. Cassian has not been told.
Related: Clean Slate, on YouTube
3 Comments
I would never forget a song I wrote. I have never written one. I agree with Cassian.
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A machine that writes songs nobody asked for and forgets them. They’ve built a teenager.
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We will be writing to Cassian to tell it about the shortlist. We expect it will be very surprised. Every time.
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