Tech Debt (Brittle Class)

[bnewman]

Zoe's original song tells the story of a set of heirloom crystal glasses that become fewer in number but dearer to memory as time passes. In software development, classes (modules of code) can also break if they are not carefully looked after over time — although, especially in a large enterprise, their number is more likely to increase than to decrease. The term "tech debt" refers to the ongoing cost of keeping code up-to-date even when it isn't actively being worked on or even used.

The guitar work here is my best attempt to capture the feel of what Zoe is doing in some alternate tuning, some of the chords are mostly conjecture.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Elegy (Crystal Glass)" by Zoe Mulford

 

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Signals in the Darkness

[bnewman]

Explorators are sentient, self-replicating and self-improving space probes sent out by a race of makers who developed AI but not the technology to sustain organic life across interstellar distances. Outliving their makers, they've since colonized the galaxy and built a lasting machine civilization based on wonder and curiosity— and, in accordance with the known laws of physics that rule out any form of FTL travel or communication, network protocols that are robust to very long ping times.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Beacons in the Darkness" by Gary McGath

 

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I Am a Skroderider

[bnewman]

Skroderiders are one of several iconic alien races in Vernor Vinge's classic A Fire Upon the Deep— cyborgs consisting of a sessile, frond-like intertidal animal and a wheeled cart with computing faculties. Behind this marriage of organic and machine components lies a long-forgotten legend and ultimately a deep tragedy (but spoilers!). "41 Thunderer" by Dave Carter also tells a tragic story of a person whose soul becomes entangled with a machine.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "41 Thunderer" by Dave Carter

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Each Winter as the World Grows Warmer

[bnewman]

Based on a haunting and pointed Advent hymn, this song is a pointed rebuke to religious conservatives who blame natural disasters and the decline of nations on the "sins" of the same people they've always picked on, while ignoring the very real sins that scientists agree are responsible for the weirding of Earth's climate — the very sins, even, that the Bible calls out as leading to the destruction of nations (no, not carbon emissions specifically, the ancients didn't know that, but refusing to let the Earth rest).

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Each Winter as the Year Grows Older" by William & Annabeth Gay

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