Creativity, once the complete and exclusive realm of human  imagination and innovation, is being breached by computers.  Last week,  there was a discussion about whether a computer can “be creative” and  generate some piece of valid creative work (art, music, dance, poetry,  etc.) that is deemed “worthy” by humans.  

So, for example, can a  computer create a successful and complete London West End musical  theater show?  Yes….?  No….?  Impossible….?  Why even try…?

It  has just been done!  After analyzing millions of data points, computers  have designed the world’s first musical theater show entitled “Beyond the Fence.”   Computers decided the key points, characters, plot, music, lyrics,  genre, and decided the main plot-line of the story.  It is a true story  based on the Greenham Common women’s peace camp, a lengthy women-only  protest at the siloing of nuclear missiles at the RAF Greenham Common  airbase in the UK around the early 1980s – the height of the cold war.   The heroine is Mary Moreton, a single mother who has fled an abusive  relationship with her daughter George. George strikes up an unlikely  friendship with US officer Jim Meadow across the chain-link fence, while  the group of women face pressures from without and turmoil from within.

Watch  this trailer found on YouTube ( If you have subscribed to AcornTV you  can view the entire two-part documentary on this entitled: “Computer Says Show.” ):

 See if and what you can find out about the process and documentary entitled “Computer Says Show” and the resulting West End show “Beyond the Fence.”  Answer the following questions:

1. What are your thoughts about this process and the resulting product of a musical theater show?

2. How safe is your own current employment job from being taken over by computers?

3. Has this changed your view of the capabilities of current and future generations of computers?