PF Paul Ford Paul Ford Writer and co-founder of Aboard, who has published essays and stories on Ftrain.com since 1997 and writes about software, AI and vibe coding.

“I just went to his version of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and I just listened to it top to bottom and it was a million times better than anything the computer could make. And it was a human being and it was a moment of connection... people are not gonna change after thousands of years just because the robot can whistle a happy tune.”

The Aboard Podcast · AI Builders · August 2026

“I just went to his version of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and I just listened to it top to bottom and it was a million times better than anything the computer could make. And it was a human being and it was a moment of connection... people are not gonna change after thousands of years just because the robot can whistle a happy tune.” — Paul Ford, The Aboard Podcast

Paul has been showing Rich a music generator he vibe-coded over the summer, including one that follows the rules of preludes and fugues. He rode his bike around listening to its output, then went home and put on Keith Jarrett's recording instead. He adds that he is not saying nothing matters except good art.

Transcript

The Aboard Podcast Around 32:02 into the episode
Speaker 1

yeah so i programmed the rules of preludes and fugues into this box and i rode my bike around i listened to it for a long time some of them are pretty good they sounded kind of pretty they didn't kind of go anywhere and i went home you like keith jarrett right you love him

Speaker 2

i love keith jarrett

Speaker 1

okay keith jarret is fascinating pianist he plays both jazz and classical at an extremely high level yeah and i just went to his version of box well-tempered clavier and i just listened to it top to bottom and it was a million times better than anything the computer could make yeah and it was a human being and it was a moment of connection and now i'm telling you about it on the podcast and i i don't want to be like oh my god none of this really matters except for good art that's not what i'm saying yeah i'm just saying like the brain and the soul kind of goes in a direction and you're gonna people are not gonna change after thousands of years just because the robot can whistle a happy tune

Speaker 2

it's playing out yeah like we can see it uh people are drifting back to other ways to connect of other ways to connect this is very cool it's an i think it's it's a it's an artifact of your journey which i think is what's most fascinating i brought it

Speaker 1

into our internal product management tool which is called cadence the company's gonna eyeball it and then we'll put it out by the time this podcast is i

Speaker 2

think people will play with it and i think oh i'd love to see people build on it i think it would be very cool

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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