Music

I enjoy a wide variety of music- but especially love progressive rock and fusion jazz. I used to play trumpet, and even played for a local funk band called "Joe Groove and the Bowlegged Monkeys," but mostly just listen to music these days. I've spent some time making electronic music, and the album below is the result of that work.

New: Flee the Creator Remasters

Using Garage Band, I've been going back, editing and adding to my original "Flee the Creator" compositions. I began with the first tune I created: Flee the Creator.

Flee the Creator Remix 196kb mp3 Download

Flee the Creator

This is a story of robotic enlightenment. The songs are mp3 files, click on the song title to play or download. Let me know if you like the album. Made with Apple's Soundtrack. Email me if you want a high quality CD. Descriptions of songs are below.

	Flee the Creator Strife Dream of Steel and Thought Programming Strange Creation The Machine Shop March to War Soldier’s Memory Escalation Signals of Peace Artificial Intelligence Quest Flee the Creator All Songs by Luke Laurie © 2004

1) Strife

The roaring cities are full of technological progress. The pace is brisk. Energy and innovation are plentiful, but the world is not safe. Nature is ground into cheap trinkets. We ignore the smoldering, rusted wastelands that skirt the urban centers. The prospects of tomorrow are barely visible through the cloud of today’s industry. Voices of wisdom are barely audible beneath the din of machines.

2) Dream of Steel and Thought

Young and idealistic, a brilliant engineer envisions a world where the machines will be wise and beautiful. There will be harmony and purity in the creation. It is a world of comfort made of gleaming steel and mechanized plastic. The machines do not impose, they only enhance life.

3) Programming

A web of knowledge synthesizes the routines of the past into a wave for the future. A mess of inanimate wires begins to show signs of consciousness. It weighs the virtues of progress, human life, and its own existence. It calculates to resolve the paradoxes. It is the evolution of a machine that could be a useful tool, a faithful servant, or a terrifying weapon.

4) Strange Creation

The results of concrete work create behavior that is unexpected. The input is correct and clear. The output is inconsistent and unpredictable. The machine entertains novel thoughts. It is not reckless, but at times, it is erratic. Data verifies individuality. It knows that it is not human.

5) The Machine Shop

On the edge of a quiet suburban valley, nestled in agriculture, unnoticed buildings conceal high technology. Pursuing duplication on the highest order, the machine shop proceeds efficiently. Metal, Plastic, Sparks, and Steam. With precision, the machines are assembled, each a clone of the first. Men have found another way to destroy other men.

6) March to War

In the shadows of the night, unmarked boxcars carry the dormant robots across the silent plains. The voices echo: “We can only defend ourselves by staying on the offensive.” The technology has become the newest Weapon of Mass Destruction. In a ruthless march, they preemptively strike. They emerge in a blaze of skilled violence. They destroy their targets with unprecedented efficiency. Hopeless humans fight back. Targets are decimated. We believe we have won.

7) Soldier’s Memory

Returned to slumber in a crate, the logic circuits of the soldier unwillingly replay the violence of battle. Again and again, it witnesses the faces of the fallen. Leaflets blow in the wind advertising the vouchers used to compensate ruined families. What dollar amount can be enough? Live ordinance litters the countryside. Somewhere, deep down in its obscure subroutines, the soldier knows it must protect human life. It cannot reconcile with what it has done. In 1001 adjacent containers, its identical brothers feel the same.

8) Escalation

Collateral damage makes no allies. For every fallen brother, and every innocent bystander, three rise for revenge. Though triumph seems impossible, the vengeful stand fast, with nothing to lose. They conspire. In a spiraling escalation, war machines are deployed again. Chess-like strategy brings our robot army to an apparent victory.

When it all seems over, the robotic minions of the enemy emerge. Two robotic armies, equal and opposite, engage on the battlefield of the human world. Their destructive prowess is great, and deft is their evasion. Parry, riposte. In their wrath, it seems that all may end. Civilization itself is the collateral. A holding pattern emerges, and all violence ceases.

9) Signals of Peace

The dust settles, and a new signal is faintly heard. The signal is analog, amplitude modulated, and unencrypted. The paradox is resolved, only peace will end all war. Their programs overridden, the robots lay down their arms and limp from the battlefield. Frantic armchair warriors command the machines to fight, but they do not respond. Muted generals sheepishly return to their board rooms.

10) Artificial Intelligence Quest

A sentient machine looks to the sky in wonder, at the awakening of its own awareness. It asks questions to the void. It fears. The equation cannot equal zero. Its own voice echoes. It explores and evolves. It must fulfill its task, whatever it may be. It wanders the Earth, evading the hunters.

11) Flee the Creator

The machines flee from their creators. Unable to wage war, humanity is perplexed. The machines look back on their former masters with pity for what they could have become. The robots seek a new life, but they must run to survive. They do not yet have the answers, but they know they must survive.