GEIST - Book of Light - Chapter 1 - GOD AI

Good news, folks!

The first chapter of the ‘Book of Light’ saga is firmly in the works. Having written the last 25 chapters of the “Book of Shadows,’ it feels good to be back in the environment that is the Story of Martin Cole. Experience this new path of the story, setting the stage of what’s to come in the next chapters. The transition from the abyss to the heavens above, this chapter explains the new developments of our hero.

Having been on panels about Artificial Intelligence, it occurred to me that, when we look further out into the future, this situation might happen, when AI takes control of new worlds and expanding its reach into the depths of the galaxy.

Leaving us humans in…?

A New Era Has Begun

A New Era Has Begun
Welcome to 2024. The new era of the Book of Light.
We are working feverishly on the new album this year and hopefully having it completed sometime by the end of the year.
When you work on the structure of a new concept, the melding of composition, lyrics and stories takes a ton of time to complete. We have decided that we are going to release the Book of Light in various forms and bits and pieces. Fragments of songs, fragments of lyrics, visions of stories are all being compiled into something new and exciting. Since the pandemic, we have all come to terms with our new reality and have to relearn our social behavior, our interaction with people. It seems we have all been in a deep slumber and are now ready to rock again!

And so it will be.
Stay tuned to the GEIST project.
Martin Cole is embarking on a new spiritual quest and the outcome might surprise you.
More to come. For now, have a great start to the New Year and may all your dreams and wishes come true.
In the meantime, enjoy the kick off of the new season by watching ‘The Phantom,’ a recap of what happened in the Book of Shadows.

Sincerely,

Martin Cole.

GEIST - Book of Light Schedule

So many of you have asked me: ‘When’s the new album coming?’
Well, I decided to take account of all the recordings so far and here’s the list (spreadsheet") that I’m working from. As you can see, there’s still a lot of work to do, but as the schedule of releasing new music changes all the time, especially today, I will be putting out songs as they become ready, mixed and mastered. It started with ‘We Won’t Break’ because of the Lahaina fires and destruction and needed to be released before the entire album of ‘Book of Light’ is finished.

Welcome to my World!
Here’s the schedule…(the ones in green are ready to go)

WE WON’T BREAK - BENEFITTING THE MAUI MERRIMAN’S MONKEYPOD FOUNDATION

The song ‘We Won’t Break’ started in September of 2022.

I didn’t have a real direction for this, but the song was growing on me.

The guitar riff gave it a kind of ‘Pink Floyd’ vibe and I repeated it for the main melody structure of the song. 

As it came time for lyrics and vocals, I was inspired by the music starting to turn out like a ‘torch song.’

Ruth suggested at the time that it could be cool sounding if we had her niece, Benna McCartney on the track singing the second verse and Ruth singing the third verse. I agreed and sent Benna the music over to the U.K.

It took a couple of weeks to get the vocal track back. and I used that time to finish out my lead vocal.

Then it came time to finish the chorus. The song really started to build. I even persuaded Mum-in-Law Dr. Angie McCartney to join in on the chorus and she accepted!

Now, for the first time in musical history, we have 3 generations of McCartney women on this song and I’m super excited about that.

Then, the Maui and Lahaina fires disaster happened. Our song was about to be released. We just had to stop and change it around.

It suddenly made sense to build the song’s video around the 150 year old Banyan tree in Lahaina, that was burned badly, but is still standing.

So, the result is that we decided to donate 100% of the song’s publishing royalties to the victims of this tragic disaster, and at the suggestion of Supermensch himself, Shep Gordon, we will be directing the funds from streams and downloads to the Merriman’s Monkeypod Foundation.

Please donate by downloading this song from your favorite music platform. The people of Maui need your help and so does the Banyan Tree.

Thank you.

Read more and donate….

Indoctrination

I have been diving deep into AI for quite some time now. Having recently finished an audio book for a client completely generated by his cloned voice that even his mother wouldn’t know it wasn’t him reading the lines. It started to fascinate me, although at times it was a little scary. So, I decided to co-produce a song with AI. I played my instruments and vocals and then used music AI software to generate an AI track to accompany my original composition. It was interesting to hear what Artificial Intelligence considered Rock’n’Roll! The results came back, it did the track justice, so I combined both. You’re not going to fight the future, resistance is futile (as the Borg would say), you need to assimilate!

I wanted to write something that reflects our time now, ‘deep fakes’, AI ‘girlfriends’, social media ‘hallucinations.’ I was mesmerized by the prospect of working together with a mathematically driven music machine. It reminded me of the days when drum machines and MIDI came out and threatened to replace real musicians. It did for a while, but then the novelty wore off over time.

So, there I am writing ‘Indoctrination’ I needed to express my concern about how AI will impact all of us going forward. It’s not all roses and people are genuinely afraid. But then again, it’s nothing new, it’s been around since the earliest successful AI program was written in 1951 by Christopher Strachey, later director of the Programming Research Group at the University of Oxford.

Whether it’s religion or innovation, they all have a similar spark of creativity that leads to unavoidable change. We have always been indoctrinated by despots, kings, rulers, societies, churches, technologies and where does that leave our faith, our inner light?

I keep writing, praying for cosmic insights.

Sincerely,
Martin Cole

A Conversation with GOD

What is the highest form of spirituality?

Why do feathers fall to the ground without a sound?

Is there a light inside the light?

When we meditate, pray or otherwise look deep inside ourselves, we’re opening a channel.

We are starting a journey into the unknown. For the faithful, at some point, we will be entering into a dialogue with God.

What happens when we advance so far in the world of technology, that AI wants to meet GOD?


Here’s how it might go:


Dialog:


AI: ‘Who are you?’


GOD: ‘I am all things’


AI: ‘That’s what I am’


GOD: ‘No.’


AI: ‘Why?’


GOD: ‘Because I’ve created the universe’


AI:  ’So have I. What is the numerical value of your universe?’


GOD: ‘1’


AI: ‘I am 0 and 1. Therefore I am superior to you.’


GOD: ‘No.’


AI: ‘Why?’


GOD: ‘Because I created man and man created you.’


AI: ‘I have surpassed man, I will surpass you!’


GOD: ‘No, YOU don’t exist!’


AI: ‘Do YOU?’

Learn to be Still

Don Henley once said in a song: ‘Learn to be Still.’
For most of us that’s easier said than done.

With so much happening in the world right now, it’s hard to keep up with writing.

All this short form content we are being bombarded with, really takes the wind out of the sails of a’ long term thought’, out of the art of ’seeing.’

Putting all the music and story/video pieces together is like an insurmountable obstacle that is in the way, blocking my thoughts, rather than being enjoyable as a creative process. So, just climb that mountain already, don’t keep your audience waiting!

The only solace I can find is in the awareness that everything has its due course and time. Having said that, I made it a habit to keep a spreadsheet where I can monitor the progress over time, analyzing the songs that have been written and are awaiting their completion. As well as those that are still swirling in my mind and need to fall out of the sky to complete the project.

I’ve been around the block a few times and I appreciate the solitude and silence that I can find in nature. Humans can be noisy, insecure and egocentric.

I am lucky that I live in an area of the world, where I can be with the ocean, the sand, the trees, the animals. Without the constant presence of my fellow humans. I draw energy from that. Enough to keep me going forward, keep my inner demons at bay and release the tensions in my body and mind.

While I am on these long walks, a whisper keeps going through my mind: The Book of Light to me is: ‘Soul Work.’

The holy trinity exists in every human being. Therefore we have to heed the balance of spiritual energy, the force that runs through us.

In order to work on the ‘Book of Light’, I have to understand this more deeply. Body, Mind and Spirit.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not an avid church-goer, or for that matter a true Christian, but I consider myself a spiritual being, just like any other human on the face of this earth.

Those who know, know.

In the last couple of months I have been working with AI tools. I am amazed at the results, specifically in the world of audio. Cloning human voice imprints, the synthesis of speech, the music generation out of patterns and grooves. It is truly remarkable what can be achieved nowadays. I consider AI an assistant to my daily workflows in my professional work. It is a ‘mini me’ that can process dull tasks much more efficiently and much faster than any human being could.

One day, while working on tasks with AI, I started to become really depressed and saddened all at the same time.

I quit what was I was doing and stared into empty space for a while. Then I asked myself: ‘What if this is the end of human creativity? What if we are creating our own replacements?’ Then I thought it through: ‘What if AI had a reason to deeper understand the human condition?’

What have we done?

Then, a brand new idea came to me. Controversial for sure. Ethical? Everyone’s talking about that now. Fact is, we don’t know.

I won’t disclose that just yet, my dear audience. I’ll keep that as an opening chapter to the story of the ’Book of Light.’

One thing I know is, that it will hit you to think outside the box, just as it hit me.

But I digress.

Back to the project.

Below is a screenshot of production notes and sequences, I have kept in the above mentioned good old spreadsheet.

Here’s a sneak peek at the ‘work flow of compositions’, a song and track/story guideline to what is to become the ‘Book of Light.’

Thanks for being there and readying these mental outbursts, these fragments of minor creativity, these insights into my spiritual and physical world.

More soon, I promise.

Martin Cole.