Matti Charlton – Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/matticharlton/garry-kasparov-and-deep-blue
On Spotify April 14th, also a video on YouTube:
Matti Charlton’s upcoming new sythpop/synthwave single Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, with it’s 2001: A Space Odyssey cover art and fonts, and seemingly cryptic lyrics, is a fascinating listen and showcases the transgender Canadian artist’s incredible talent and complexity as they weave two tales together into a narrative about artificial intelligence that is especially relevant today and in the future.
Matti takes the science fact of the Deep Blue chess program win, and the science fiction of Stanley Kubrick 1969 epic film “2001: A Space Odyssey” and brings them together to remind us of the future we face with artificial intelligence. All of this is delivered with VERY catchy lyrics and hooks, a great retro 80s sound delivered with modern production values. We are excited about this song!
On May 11, 1997 the chess computer program Deep Blue running on an IBM Server defeated Garry Kasparov 3.5 – 2.5 games. It was the first time a chess program had defeated a grand master human and is considered to be a major achievement in the history of artificial intelligence.
28 years earlier, in 1969, Stanley Kubrick directed the visually stunning 2001: A Space Odyssey in which a futuristic alien intelligence becomes revealed to mankind throughout history culminating a mission to Jupiter where a computer program running on the space craft sent to the alien signal’s source there exhibits disturbing motives.
The program, HAL, is a reference also to IBM (H-A-L are the precursor letters in the alphabet to the letters I-B-M).
Our fear of artificial intelligence wanting to kill us as we as humans explore the universe is a pervasive one; but “there’s nothing more that we can do”. The win that Deep Blue secured over Garry Kasparov is considered a landmark in AI. As we move to the future, we always want more knowledge and so it is inevitable that artificial intelligence will evolve and surpass us as the most sophisticated and advance sentience and intelligent life on Earth. There’s nothing more that we can do, this is a certainty.
This song weaves those stories and that narrative together in a loquacious rhythm overtop of retrofuturism’s most promising and strong musical styles – synthwave.
Featuring references to both the chess game between Kasparov and Deep Blue – literally, the moves from the game – in the lyrics: “Black Pawn to Queen 4” and “White Bishop slides to Queen’s Knight 2”
and also featuring clear references to the 1969 Kubrick science fiction film (as well as the album artwork, which has artist Matti Charlton stylized in what is clearly a similar spacesuit treatment to what Dave wears when confronting HAL in the computer server area of the spaceship “Discovery”) there are references to the “star child” the main actor becomes as well as the famous phrase uttered by him in the film “Open the pod bay doors, HAL”.
This song is a gem of interwoven complexity about the inevitable rise of artificial intelligence and that, whether our fears are justified or not, we cannot stop the event from occurring as well as pressed onwards and upwards in our achievements and abilities that A.I.’s rise and our inevitable replacement is a certainty at some point in the future.
The Deep Blue chess program win is used as a watershed moment in that realization and those who were alive to remember the game happening on May 11, 1997 can attest to the weight of that moment in history.
For those too young to have experienced it, the song is a wake up call to remind all of us of the certainty of this outcome.
Better to accept what you cannot change than to war against inevitability! Perhaps the future foundation of A.I.’s rise to power will not be as fraught with danger and HAL’s murderous intentions as we fear? Only time will tell!
Song lyrics:
There’s nothing more that you can do
White bishop slides to queen’s knight 2
This black obelisk annihilating you
A queen’s ransom in a castle fool
In a castle fool, and
Just give it some thought, why don’t you?
Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue
Electrons firing like machine guns do
Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue
Oh
As time peels away, the gambit placed
Can our hubris burn away?
Now you can see that
You have always wanted more
But the time has come to forfeit
Black pawn to queen 4
No more, and
You are the star child
Open the pod bay doors, HAL
You are the star child
Open the pod bay doors, HAL
You are the star child
Open the pod bay doors, HAL
Just give it some thought, why don’t you?
Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue
Electrons firing like machine guns do
Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue
You are the star child
There’s nothing more that you can do
Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue
A queen’s ransom in a castle fool
Give it some thought why don’t you?
There’s nothing more that you can do
Open the pod bay doors, HAL
There’s nothing more that you can do
Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue
Lyrics and song ©2021-2022 Matti Charlton (Matthew John Charlton). All Rights Reserved.
