The Last Hive Mind II

From the composer:

The Last Hive Mind II was commissioned by the ASPIRE Consortium, led by conductor Glen Adsit at the Hartt School. Inspired by the British TV series, Black Mirror, and the general idea of recent increasing debate around artificial intelligence and how it will affect our daily lives as human beings. I put some of my thoughts, perspectives, and imagination into this work. Thanks to Glen for coming up with the dynamic and matching title — it also helped shape how musical narrative navigates its way throughout.

Mainly, I was struck by the episode “Metalhead.” After the unexplained collapse of human society, a group of people tried to flee from the robotic “dogs,” a vast hive mind with metal built bodies and powerful computerized “brains.” The failure was almost predictable. However, a detail that struck me the most was that these human beings got trapped in the crazy chase because of their effort of searching a comforting gift for a very sick child — a fluffy teddy bear. As the title indicates, this work depicts the struggle between the artificial intelligence, or the hive mind, and the dimming humanity; furthermore, the work implies the final collapse and breakdown of the last hive mind followed by its triumph.

Shuying Li (June 2020)