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Ray Kurzweil on "I've Got a Secret"

Sidewinder77
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YouTube
2 HN users recommended this video2 months2012–2016 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN shares it as an impressive early example of computer-generated music and of Kurzweil's precocity.

Seventeen-year-old Ray Kurzweil appears on the TV show I've Got a Secret in 1965, playing a piece of music composed by a computer program he built.

“mind blown that kurzweil made programmed music in this presentation in 1965.” (HN, 2016)

2 recommendations · 2 citations · Other

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@mixmax Oct 2012 Recommends
on HN thread A Guy Who Saw Lincoln Get Shot Was on a TV Show in 1956
Here's another interesting episode of the same show (I've got a secret) - it's a 17 year old Ray Kurzweil plaing the piano. His secret is that he wrote a computer program that made the music he's playing. Pretty impressive for a 17 year old in 1965... [this video]
17-year-old Kurzweil plays music composed by his own program in 1965.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@burritofanatic Feb 2015 Cites it
on HN thread How I Taught My Computer to Write Its Own Music
I immediately thought of Ray Kurzweil when he played music that was written by a computer he programmed in 1965 in which he demonstrated on the game show I've Got a Secret. I'd say with all of these responses, we've progressed quite a bit. [this video]
@steveeq1 Jul 2016 Cites it
on HN thread What makes music sound “good?”
Ray Kurzweil seems to have made a passable song using a computer: [this video] Granted, I wouldn't say it's song of the year or anything, but it's definitely listenable. Does anyone know of his general approach in his software for writing music?

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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