Toyota Shows Off Violinist Robot Video | Bad News For Musicians?

At first, I thought this robot violinist was very entertaining. But after careful consideration, it became clear to me that Toyota has created something more than a just an automated violinist or a robot:

A potential monster…

According to Toyota, this very robot has over 17 joints in it’s hands and arms and is still in heavy development stages. By 2010, however, the engineers behind it say that robots like this will be offered to hospitals to help aid nurses.

As a musician, this clip was extremely depressing. Sure, plenty of middle school students could play Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” (aka the graduation song) better, but that isn’t the point. What if these robots started to replace actual musicians on stage?

My fear is that the phrase “starving artist” could possibly apply to the majority of instrumentalists in the future. No doubt, we’ve created a monster- the only thing left to do now is tame it.