Nobel laureate Alfvén’s visionary portrayal of computers in the distant future is now an opera

“We want to show that KTH as a University of Technology can also create culture. It’s really a good feeling to be able to do this while also paying homage to KTH’s Nobel Prize winner Hannes Alfvén,” says Leif Handberg , Associate Professor in Media Technology at KTH and Director of the KTH Reactor Hall, R1.

“The Tale of the Big Computer” was originally intended as a bedtime story for Alfvén’s grandchildren. In the book, the 1970 Nobel Laureate in Physics depicts a future, where humans are reduced to an evolutionary step on the road to a wise and all-knowing computer.

“In the book, which has gone on to become a cult classic in Silicon Valley, Alfvén foresees a great many of the technological developments that are impacting us humans to a high degree today,” Handberg says.

It´s about the meeting between man and machine

“The opera concerns humans, artificial intelligence and what it means to be human if we let go and leave everything to computer systems and what we today call artificial intelligence,” say Carl who have created and orchestrated “The Tale of the Great Computing Machine”, together with his wife Åsa Unander-Scharin.

“Artificial intelligence, or robot brains as this was called in the 1960s, can be used for both good and evil. The new opera raises existential questions about the role of humans in a future where everything has been transferred to artificial intelligence. It asks, where could we be heading if we don’t think this through?”

Åsa and Carl Unander-Scharin were commissioned to create an opera based on Alvén’s book. They are responsible for the music, libretto, choreography and direction, and not least, the new technologies that are part of the work. Carl Unander-Scharin is an opera singer and composer, who defended his PhD at KTH, and is Visiting Professor in Opera and Voice at Karlstad University. Åsa Unander-Scharin is a choreographer and a Professor in the Division of Music, Media and Theatre at Luleå University of Technology (LTU). She received her PhD in Musical Performance (LTU) for her doctoral thesis: Human Mechanics and Soulful Machines. Åsa and CarlThe two have several roles in this production: authors of a new libretto, the musical composition, choreography and direction.

The entire Reactor Hall is the stage

The whole of the Reactor Hall will be used as a stage where the audience can see and hear four opera singers, five instrumentalists, a dancer, plus a pre-recorded opera singer, who is the voice from the future. Åsa Unander-Scharin says that new artistic technology has been developed for the work. This includes connecting in the old organ from the Skandia Cinema that is now in the Reactor Hall.

“We have created an instrument whereby different pipes, registers and sound effects, can be played via specially designed rings on your fingers. The organ will be an organism that you can play on in the air,” Åsa Unander-Scharin says.

“To portray the time symbiosis and computer art, computer poetry and computer music, we have developed interactive and responsive technologies such as “The Vocal Chorder”. By stretching and tightening, leaning and hanging on the chords, the singers create accompaniments to their song,” she says.

Vadstena-Akademienproduces the opera

Production of the opera is in the hands of Stiftelsen Vadstena-Akademien, that has produced a series of operas since 1964, both new works and older, forgotten works. Terese Lindström, a producer at Vadstena-Akademien is coordinating the different parts of the project and has made sure that KTH and Vadstena-Akademien have got to know the way they each work and communicate, plan and budget, to enable as much of the project vision as possible to be realised with high quality.

“It feels fantastic to collaborate with KTH, when it comes to this absolutely special location, the resources and know-how. The project is developing both our organisations and bringing new artistic forms of expression and narrative, through and about the meeting between humans and technology,” she says.

“The Tale of the Great Computing Machine” is scheduled for 17 performances with the opening night on 1 December.

For more information about the production, go to the opera website.

Håkan Soold

About “The Tale Of The Big Computer”

“The Tale Of The Big Computer” was written by 1970 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Hannes Alfvén, and was published in 1966 under the pen name of Olof Johannesson (however the 1986 edition was published under his own name). In an article for Wikipedia, Handberg describes the book as “… an evolutionary history set in a distant future, where humans have been reduced to an evolutionary step on the road to a wise and all-knowing computer”. Alfvén divided his working time between KTH and the University of California, Berkeley, and the book, which has been published under various different titles in English (The Great Computer. The Vision, The Tale Of The Big Computer, and The End Of Man?) has now become a cult classic in Silicon Valley.

When composer Karl-Birger Blomdahl, whose CV includes a successful opera based on Harry Martinsson’s epic poem Aniara, was hospitalised, a friend brought him a copy of the book. After reading the book, Blomdahl was fired with enthusiasm and contacted Alfvén to say he wished to make an opera based on the book. Alfvén initially said no, he felt the book was far too abstract. However Blomdahl insisted and a libretto was developed. The idea was for the opera to be performed by the Royal Swedish Opera and at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. But Blomdahl passed away before he was able to complete the work and the idea of turning the book into an opera had remained dormant until now.

The KTH staging of an opera based on the book was initially planned for December 2020 to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of Alfvén being awarded the Nobel Prize. However, the pandemic put a stop to that and the opera will now première in December instead.