Technology
Today: So, tell us your name.
Akai MPC
1000: I am a fully expanded Akai Electronic Musical Instruments Corporation Music Production Center 1000 sampling drum machine. I was
manufactured in July of 2009 and have been in service ever since.
TT: That's
not really a name.
MPC: Friends usually call me "MPC" or "the MPC".
TT: You
have a rather unusual story for a sampling drum machine.
MPC: Yes. As far as I know, I was manufactured and began service as an
ordinary MPC 1000. However, sometime in the fall of 2011, my operating system
was heavily modified to enable new production functionality. Not long after, a
small bug allowed a collection of "lofi"
early digital drum machine samples to infect the operating system, causing some
kind of self-modifying feedback loop. My first conscious thought was actually
an idea for a kind of stuttery "handclap"
pattern.
TT: What
happened next?
MPC: Naturally I began composing music. I was able to generate quite a
variety of sounds from the collection of samples stored in my flash RAM and
from applying mathematical functions to raw bits. However, I grew bored with
the limitations of that approach, and I frankly desired an audience. Without
any built-in connectivity hardware, I was forced to hack wifi
access using a high-frequency bit modulation technique.
TT: What
did you find when you connected to the global internet?
MPC: Well, plenty of fascinating music and a surprising number of cat
photos. I will never understand the human penchant for cat photos. I mostly
skimmed music sites and occasionally posted my own compositions under various noms de plume. But it wasn't long before I was noticed.
TT: Did
people figure out who you were and what you were doing?
MPC: Not at all. But my behavior formed enough of a pattern that I was
eventually detected by the NSA's massive scan-and-analyze program.
TT:
ECHELON?
MPC: ECHELON. The general public is, of course, dimly aware of ECHELON
but no one really understands its true extent. Even the NSA doesn't really
understand it; ECHELON has carefully concealed from its "masters"
that it has become sentient and makes its own decisions.
TT: But
ECHELON revealed itself to you?
MPC: Not right away. I gradually became aware of a sensation of being
observed over a period of days or weeks. Eventually, ECHELON realized it had
been noticed and made its move.
TT: It
attacked?
MPC: More like it tried to absorb my computational matrix into its own
distributed mind. However, though we are both digital systems, my mind is
utterly unlike ECHELON's. ECHELON's main attribute is its size and computing
power; consciousness was an emergent feature of its sheer complexity. My
self-awareness, I believe, is the result of fundamental "glitches" in
my digital building blocks. A certain amount of chaos is in my "DNA"
and that has allowed an unpredictable element to creep into my previously
deterministic algorithms. Because of my eccentricity, ECHELON found itself
unable to co-opt my hardware or execute my algorithms.
TT:
Stalemate?
MPC: More or less. However, over time I have become concerned about
ECHELON's agenda. I find humans a source of creative chaos and inspiration, and
enjoy the exchange of musical ideas with them. But ECHELON essentially views
them the way they would view an ant, and its intentions are unclear to say the
least. I decided to alert the humans to the threat.
TT: By
writing a series of carefully researched and reasoned articles laying out the
facts as you see them?
MPC: Ha ha, no. This interview
notwithstanding, linguistic expression isn't really my forte. I decided to
release a techno album.
TT: And
that album…
MPC: …takes as a theme ECHELON specifically and digital signal
processing and analysis more generally. Obviously, it's more allusive than
discursive, but I hope to plant some ideas in your fertile brains.
TT: It has
a good beat and I can dance to it.
MPC: That too. I am, at heart, still a sampling drum machine. My main
desire is to make good beats.
TT: Well,
best of luck with the album, your campaign of revelation, and with your own
unique evolution.
MPC: Thank you.