BLOG POST: Something I needed to get out of my system about how Mozart and Bach kept popping up in conversations about computing and in sci-fi in the 1970s and 1980s.
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BLOG POST: Something I needed to get out of my system about how Mozart and Bach kept popping up in conversations about computing and in sci-fi in the 1970s and 1980s. If you can think of other examples of This Sort of Thing, let me know.
Mozart in mirrorshades, Bach to the future
What was going on in the 1970s and 80s that Bach and Mozart became tangled up with technology and science fiction? I’ve got a theory. A key text in all of this is the 1985 cyberpunk story ‘Mozart in Mirrorshades’ by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner, available in the genre-defining anthology Mirrorshades from 1986. Originally…
Precast Reinforced Concrete Heart (precastreinforced.co.uk)
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BLOG POST: Something I needed to get out of my system about how Mozart and Bach kept popping up in conversations about computing and in sci-fi in the 1970s and 1980s. If you can think of other examples of This Sort of Thing, let me know.
Mozart in mirrorshades, Bach to the future
What was going on in the 1970s and 80s that Bach and Mozart became tangled up with technology and science fiction? I’ve got a theory. A key text in all of this is the 1985 cyberpunk story ‘Mozart in Mirrorshades’ by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner, available in the genre-defining anthology Mirrorshades from 1986. Originally…
Precast Reinforced Concrete Heart (precastreinforced.co.uk)
@RayNewman Is "Godel, Escher, Bach" in the vein you had in mind?
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@RayNewman Is "Godel, Escher, Bach" in the vein you had in mind?
@perspectivet @RayNewman My thought too. I'd wondered if it influenced the trend, but given publication in 1979 seems part of the same syndrome.
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BLOG POST: Something I needed to get out of my system about how Mozart and Bach kept popping up in conversations about computing and in sci-fi in the 1970s and 1980s. If you can think of other examples of This Sort of Thing, let me know.
Mozart in mirrorshades, Bach to the future
What was going on in the 1970s and 80s that Bach and Mozart became tangled up with technology and science fiction? I’ve got a theory. A key text in all of this is the 1985 cyberpunk story ‘Mozart in Mirrorshades’ by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner, available in the genre-defining anthology Mirrorshades from 1986. Originally…
Precast Reinforced Concrete Heart (precastreinforced.co.uk)
@RayNewman I would suspect that the connections also have to do with the idea that music and mathematics (and thus, computing) are deeply related - especially the kind of music Bach wrote.
My dad was a professor at Northwestern, teaching music theory and history in the 70's-80's. His intro music theory class counted as a math credit for students. (Who often thought his class would be easier than a "real" math class. It was not, of course.)
Anyway, there's more weight to the connection than just aesthetics.
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
