The Veldt
By Kaze • 3 minutes read •
What started for me as a catchy song by deadmau5, quickly turned into something else. At first the song had a certain beat that, while not being really special had parts of it that stick in the head. Second, well it talks a bit about lions, that's a little something that always work for me (can't figure out why 😅). Then I started to really focus on the lyrics. I was trying to find the song on Genius, to explain some parts of the lyrics (why the raw nature is blended with technology) and I found the origin of the song.
It comes from a short story written in 50th by the American Ray Bradbury. In the lyrics of the song, it says "Can we believe in machines" and this one made me think a little. From the story's perspective, computers and machines replace humans for many tasks. From cooking to nursing, machines are everywhere to a point where it strips humans of their purpose. Now that we are in the age of artificial intelligence, this text takes a whole lot meaning. Clearly it was a warning in the 50th, but now it cannot feel more real. Just this month, the founder of OpenAI went ahead with a little perl:
I cannot imagine having gone through, figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT
🙄 In a couple of years, toys with AI features such as ChatGPT will be the "saviour" of parents, providing endless entertainment to kids. Maybe it will even replace friends. I can see how someone could build up its expectation of friendship based only on AI interactions. I would be curious to know the opinion of sociologists regarding this whole thing.
You can listen the song, and read the short story here:
Update January 2026
There was a recent news about a boy who shot his father after his Switch got taken by said father. I don't know for you, but it really sounds like a modern version of "The Veldt". It's for sure a sad event but I cannot stop thinking about the state of mind of the boy. This is something that will follow him all his life. If only there was no guns in his house.