(Not quite) fearing for my livelihood

A video of ASIMO conducting the Detroit Symphony in May (coincidentally enough, the week after I conducted the DSO). I confess that I found the fluidity in the motion rather extraordinary (he's quite a piece of engineering!!). I've been asked countless times after this video hit YouTube whether I feared for my livelihood, but I think the answer is pretty evident. No matter how sophisticated the technology, it is impossible for any machine to duplicated what a musician can do, until machines can learn intuition, and the delicate push/pull of a dynamic situation (like conducting) where one is making split second decisions about how to lead and convince and cajole - not based on an equation, but on a primal gut instinct. And I don't much care for his phrasing, or his lack of rubato.

I had written, shortly after ASIMO's debut, to Leonard Slatkin, a mentor I first met at the National Conducting Institute in 2002, and after discussing all manner of other topics, he answered my question about robot conductors: "As far as ASIMO goes, let's just say that it is not ready for the NCI yet." Good to know...