Virtual?

December 9th, 2017| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Short skirts. Blue-green pigtails that go down to her knees. Energy abundant. She is a Japanese popstar sensation who has, in her 10-year career, released more than 100,000 songs in a variety of languages, and opened shows for Lady Gaga. Her Facebook page is followed by close to 2.5 million fans!

But she isn’t real. She is—get this!—virtual! A computer-simulated humanoid persona voiced by a singing synthesizer application, she is the product of Crypton Future Media in Sapporo, Japan, and its CEO, Hiroyuki Ito,

Said Ito:

You can find plenty of YouTube videos about the Hatsune Miku character, but she started out as a piece of voice-synthesis software.”

Miku the software has the sound and a bunch of tools baked in. All her handlers need to do is input the melody and the lyrics and Miku the character sings them. Both the software and character are named Hatsune Miku, which means “The First Sound of the Future” (初, hatsu = first; 音, ne = sound; and ミク, miku = future).

But she is now a singing sensation whose performances are sold-out concerts, as she sings accompanied by real and human musicians.

Miku’s image was even etched on the side of a recent Japanese rocket!

The software, BTW, is for sale. Crypton has sold 120,000 units of Hatsune Miku, which retails for $200, according to Ito. Amateur composers pen songs and put them online and some of these budding composers have been snatched by record composers looking for The Next Big Thing. In fact, some fan-created songs are also sung at Miku’s concerts, for which their composers receive royalties.

Explained Ito:

A Hatsune Miku concert, rather than being a professionally produced concert with orders coming from the top down, is more of a collaboration of creators acting in concert with Hatsune Miku to share popular songs that fans love.“

All very lucrative for Crypton who also makes money through merchandising and concert tickets.

Predicted Ito:

We are trying to further develop [the] technology and get our voice synthesizer software as close as possible to the human voice. We will arrive at the point, though, where we have surpassed the human voice to create something that doesn’t exist.”

Tens of thousands of fans attended her recent exhibition and life shows. Among the star-struck reactions were:

You could call her the perfect pop star.”

“She has no flaw or any news that makes us unhappy.”

“She is everything to everybody.”

Misawa, a guitarist in Miku’s band, agreed:

Hatsune Miku doesn’t have a specific personality. This means she can do or become anything.”

For her fans, it goes even further. Said one:

She has no soul. Our job is to give her a soul.”

It is obvious that humanity has a deep hunger for someone or something that is perfect. But you know what? That’s a hole that only God can fill. Nothing else. No one else.

Declared Henri Nouwen:

No human being [or virtual thing] can understand us fully, or give us unconditional love, or offer constant affection that enters into the core of our being and heal our deepest brokenness.”

Only God!

And this God took on humanity to pay for our sins, to heal our deepest wounds, to satisfy our deepest needs.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

That’s why he came, God incarnate, Jesus Christ, our only God and Savior!

Have a blessed Advent season!