The evolution of music and musician students’ views on ethical dilemmas related to transhumanistic music

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between the new 21st-century composing paradigm and human evolution, as well as the attitude of young musicians towards the future of music, with the participation of students from the Tbilisi State Conservatoire. The importance of the research lies in its ability to address how AI, new genres and digital paradigms, and renewed compositional methods and tools change compositional principles and determine the interconnection of these novelties with the ideas of Advanced Humanism. The research problem is to investigate how scientific and technological advancements, especially those related to AI, are transforming creative tendencies, aesthetic values, and ethical perceptions in contemporary art music, and how these changes impact the future of musical expression, spiritual discourse, and human identity. As the research model, this study adopts a qualitative approach grounded in interpretivism, employing document analysis as the primary method. Fifty music students from the Tbilisi State Conservatoire participated in the study, providing the necessary data. Selected scores and audiovisual recordings of contemporary compositions that contribute to transhumanistic art music were also analysed. For data collection, a custom-developed questionnaire titled Opinions on Ethical Dilemmas in Transhumanist Music (OEDTM) was used. It included ten ethical dilemmas and applied a 5-point Likert scale to collect students’ opinions on transhumanistic music ethics. The analysis demonstrates how scientific advancements have influenced creative tendencies in contemporary music. Art music—through new directions such as eco-music, multimedia, algorithmic composition, generative art music, and AI music—breaks compositional stereotypes and transforms traditional music-making. Creative imagination is increasingly realised in digital spaces, reshaping sonic realities and giving rise to a new techno-aesthetic agenda. All of this contributes to the transformation of consciousness, preparing humanity for further evolution—an era framed in terms of transhumanism, posthumanism, metahumanism, or Euro-Transhumanism. Art music, most closely associated with conveying humanity’s spiritual origins, will continue to embrace religious and spiritual discourse. The new techno-aesthetic platform does not contradict spiritual principles. The study concludes that the future processes of humankind’s evolution, leading to techno-humans, will not change the mission of art. Technological advancements, including AI, new genres, compositional paradigms, and modes of expression aligned with transhumanistic ideals, will not diminish the spiritual and ethical significance of human-composed music. Participants responded significantly to most ethical dilemmas regarding transhumanistic music (p.05). Specifically, findings from students reveal a strong commitment to human-centred creativity and ethical accountability, highlighting a cautious yet thoughtful engagement with transhumanist innovations in music.