《Capriccio • Mankind, Singularity, and Beyond》connotates the thoughts on the relationship of human civilization vs. Earth civilization vs. interstellar civilization. The work manifests itself in two folds: (1) the painting jointly done by Eric Shi and ESAG (i.e., Eric Shi Art Generator); and (2) the music piece jointly done by Eric Shi and ESMC (i.e., Eric Shi Music Composer). Both the painting and the music may be conceptually divided into three sections.

The music piece starts with an introductory bar of piano at moderato, followed by the emergence of the first violin motif at andante cantabile. The first section runs from bar-1 to bar-46. It goes from soothing violin solo to violin-piano duet with an increasingly quickened pace (moving from andante into allegro), recapping the accelerated progress of human civilization from hunting and gathering through agricultural and industrial until today. In the painting, this progress is depicted by the majestic sunset scene on the lower 1/3 of the canvas. The bright sunlight over the sea, corresponding to the increasingly resounding progression of the music towards bar-46, highlights the brilliant technological achievement attained so far by human civilization.  

The second section of the music score starts with a single twelve-tone chord (all in the treble) at the bar- 47 and ends with a string of eight-tone chords (i.e., four in the treble and the other four in the bass) at bars-57 and 58. The thundery twelve-tone-chord signals the arrival of the singularity of human civilization development. Between bar-48 and bar-56, different sub-motifs enter at various times, disturbing the coherence of the overall music progression, depicting different interest groups in nations, and countries of conflicting ideologies, racing against one another competing for technological supremacy. This is likely a dreadful and disastrous period in real life, and many ugly things may happen. However, further elaboration on any of these is beyond the scope of a small 3-minute-long music piece. So,《Capriccio • Mankind, Singularity, and Beyond》decides simply to wrap up the second section with a string of eight-tone-chords, signalling a series of explosive events. Such explosive events are likely inevitable for the history of tomorrow to terminate the dreadful and disastrous infightings and subversions within the human race and to allow reshaping and sublimation of the human civilization into an interstellar civilization to take place. In the painting, all these stated by the second section of the music are depicted by the spaceship hovering above the Earth sky, on the middle 1/3 of the canvas.        

In the last section of the score, the music starts with a momentary busy-and-chaotic search for direction at bars-59 and 60 but quickly converges into a coherent and epical melody. The solo violin travels through strings of high notes at a pace slowing down gradually from allegro through andante, and eventually ending at largo, mimicking the "Doppler effect" as the spaceship leaves Earth's orbit and accelerates further into the depth of the vast universe (cf. the nebula painted on the top 1/3 of the canvas).

Human civilization (homo sapiens based) is only a chapter of the Earth civilization; the Earth civilization will be a chapter of a broader interstellar civilization. The first half of this statement has been true so far, and the whole will likely be proven in the future. The best we can hope is that there are some good elements in the legacy of human civilization that will enable them to survive and sustain in the posthuman eras. It is the hope and dream of the 《Capriccio • Mankind, Singularity, and Beyond》that we, the likeminded in the human race, carry forward those good elements during our times, leaving something worthwhile for the posthuman civilizations to carry with them into the deep space, just as the first motif echoes in the bar-78 to bar-87 of the epical melody, in section 3 of the music.

《随想曲 • 人类、奇点、超越》蕴含着对人类文明、地球文明、星际文明这三者关系的思考。作品分别通过绘画和音乐的方式来表达这种思考。(1)绘画部分由施舒与伊赛格(施舒制作的智能绘画助手)合作完成; (2)音乐部分由施舒与伊斯迈克(施舒制作的智能音乐助手)共同完成。而画作和乐曲在构造上又各种都由三部分组成。

乐曲以中板的钢琴独奏为引导，随后在如歌的行板上由小提琴奏出第一主题。乐曲的第一部分第1至第46小节组成。它从舒缓的小提琴独奏过渡到小提琴与钢琴的二重奏，音乐的节奏越来越快(从行板进入快板)，籍以用音乐的形式概括出人类文明从狩猎和采集经过农业社会以及工业社会直至今天的加速进步。在绘画作品中，与这一段乐曲对应的是画作中靠近底部的约1/3。这部分的画面用壮丽的日落与乐曲中渐趋明亮的旋律相互烘托，以显示人类文明所取得的技术成就的璀璨与辉煌。 

乐曲的第二部分以第47小节处的单个十二音和弦开始。不期而至的十二音和弦，仿佛一声晴天霹雳，宣告了人类文明发展奇点的到来。在第48小节和第56小节之间，音乐借助在不同的时间点插入乐章的代表不同角色的子主题，特意扰乱了整首乐曲的连贯发展，概括地预示了人类社会中各利益集团以及意识形态尖锐冲突的各国家之间为争夺技术领先地位而必将发生的激烈竞争。在未来的现实生活中，这很可能是一个灾难性的时期。人性中许多丑恶的东西都会在这一时期集中爆发。然而，逐个地细数和分析这些丑恶，将迫使这篇短小的音乐作品远远地超出其设定的约3分钟的总体长度。因此，本乐曲决定只是简单地使用一串八音和弦的轰鸣(以预示未来的一系列的爆炸性事件) 在第57小节至第58小节处结束这第二部分。这些爆炸性事件对于结束灾难性的人类内讧和自相残杀，对于促成人类文明的整体重塑并升华为星际文明而言，或将是不可避免的。在本作品的绘画部分里，与这一段乐曲对应的叙事是由画面的中间1/3来完成的。这一部分画面描绘的是悬浮在地球轨道上的一艘星际飞船。行将远航的飞船象征着人类文明脱胎换骨的决心。

乐曲的最后一部分，首先在第59至60小节处以短暂而躁动的音乐概述了被一系列爆炸性事件打散了的人类中的优秀分子无可避免地需要在劫后余生的废墟上重新整合起来的短暂过程。在这短暂的躁动过后，音乐迅速地汇聚成连贯而坚定的旋律。独奏小提琴穿过一串串的高音区，把音乐带向史诗般壮丽的高潮。再往后，乐曲的速度又从快板逐渐减慢到行板，最后以慢板结束，以模仿太空飞船离开地球轨道并加速飞向宇宙的浩瀚深处(参见画布顶部1/3上绘制的星云)时的“多普勒效应”。

人类文明只是地球文明的一个篇章。展望未来，人类文明有其始必有其终。人类文明必将被超越；奇点已经很近了。我们所能期望的无非是：人类文明中优秀的部分能够作为遗产为“后人类”的星际文明时代提供一些借鉴。这也是寄托在《随想曲 • 人类、奇点以及 ……》中的梦想：我们人类为“后人类文明”留下了一些有价值的东西，让它（祂、牠）们带入浩瀚的宇宙深处，就像乐曲中舒缓的第一主题(人类文明的主题)亲切地在乐曲结尾处史诗般地飘向太空的旋律中回荡一样。