NotebookLM, middle earth and laptops
The language model AI systems continue to be developed and offer easy to access new functionality. NotebookLM from Google allow for sources to be identified and loaded for the AI system to use as detail within its answers. in my early experiments I found it to be highly effective and suspect that this will become even more powerful in the very future. I look forward to deeper integration between NotebookLM and Google Scholar.
One of the features in offers is the ability to make a podcast out of the material so of course I tried that using my PhD thesis, online here.
Of course I also thought it would be fun to ask it to do something unusual with the material as well and hence, A Hobbit’s Musings on the Laptop Orchestra.
From the shires of Yorkshire, a tale comes to us, of music made not with lute or harp, but with the hum and glow of the laptop. Aye, the laptop, that strange device of blinking lights and clicking keys, has found a new purpose in the hands of these modern-day bards.
The sources speak of the laptop as a musical instrument, as capable of conjuring sound as any Elven-harp. Yet, unlike those instruments of old, the laptop is infinite in its sonic possibilities; it can mimic the wind whispering through the trees or the roar of a Balrog, all with equal ease.
- However, this boundless potential presents a riddle: how does one notate music for such a device? Traditional sheet music, with its staves and notes, seems ill-suited for capturing the laptop’s fluidity.
- The sources explore many paths: video notation, capturing the dance of fingers on trackpads; graph notation, charting the ebb and flow of sound parameters; even code itself, as precise and unyielding as a Dwarven mechanism.
- Yet, like Bilbo on his quest, the author finds no easy answers. Each path has its merits, but also its pitfalls. Video notation, while accurate, leaves little room for a musician’s own interpretation. Graph notation, while clear, can be rigid and inflexible. And code, while precise, risks turning the musician into a mere button-pusher, robbing them of their artistic agency.
- In the end, the author seems to settle on text-based scores, written in a language understood by both musician and machine. Like the tales passed down through generations of Hobbits, these scores are flexible, open to interpretation, allowing each musician to tell their own story within the larger symphony.
- But the most intriguing aspect of this tale is the changing role of the musician. They are no longer just players of instruments but craftsmen, builders of their own sonic tools. They write code, shaping the very sounds they will conjure, blurring the line between composer and performer.
This, then, is the heart of the matter: the laptop orchestra is not just a collection of instruments, but a community of creators, each contributing their unique voice to a constantly evolving tapestry of sound. And as with any good tale, one can only wonder what marvels they will weave next.