SILICON SOAPWARE wafting your way along the slipstreams of the Info Highway from Bubbles = Tom Digby = bubbles@well.com http://www.well.com/~bubbles/ Issue #186 New Moon of February 13, 2010 Contents copyright 2010 by Thomas G. Digby, with a liberal definition of "fair use". In other words, feel free to quote excerpts elsewhere (with proper attribution), post the entire zine (verbatim, including this notice) on other boards that don't charge specifically for reading the zine, link my Web page, and so on, but if something from here forms a substantial part of something you make money from, it's only fair that I get a cut of the profits. Silicon Soapware is available via email with or without reader feedback. Details of how to sign up are at the end. ********************* Late, late, late. But I sort of have an excuse. This New Moon fell during a convention. It wasn't really a science fiction convention, but more like a Pagan convention in the format of traditional science fiction conventions. See http://www.pantheacon.com/ But be the details as they may, it still took up pretty much the whole weekend, not to mention preparation time leading up to it. Then in a couple of weeks I'll be off to another convention, this one a filk convention (sort of like a science fiction music festival) in early March. See http://www.consonance.org/ This next convention may lead to next month's issue also being late, but maybe not since it will be over before next New Moon. But I think I still want to reserve the right to use it as an excuse if I am late next month. ********************* Since there's an upcoming convention relating to science fiction and music, I got to wondering about music on other planets. Assuming that we meet intelligent beings that are enough like us to be able to share some experiences, how likely are they to have developed something we would recognize as "music"? How likely are we to find it enjoyable? And how likely is it to resemble some form of music we're familiar with? Although it's pretty much impossible to be certain of anything regarding beings we haven't met yet, here are some preliminary thoughts. Let's assume some similarities between them and us: They can move and can manipulate objects. Their world has a gaseous atmosphere at a temperature and pressure not too different from ours, even if the chemical composition is different. They experience time on about the same scale as we do, as opposed to appearing to be statues or just a blur of motion. Let's also assume that their hearing range is similar to ours, give or take an octave or two at either end. Also, within their hearing range they can perceive pitch and timbre about we well as we can. We can relax those assumptions later, but they should sort of keep things manageable for now. So what is "music"? For purposes of this discussion, let's say it's a constructed pattern of sounds that vary over time. It's usually intended to be perceived as pleasurable or to convey some sort of emotional feeling, but is distinct from spoken language. This definition is rather fuzzy, but then even on Earth there are situations (such as military bugle calls, or clocks striking the hour) where music shades over into language or other types of communication, with aesthetics not being a main priority. So let's not try to define "music" too precisely, but just say that we usually sort of know it when we hear it. We have no way of knowing if they will take pleasure in and/or attach emotional meanings to patterns of sound, but let's assume they will. How similar with those sounds be to what we know as "music"? Let's look at the statement that the sounds that make up music vary over time. Humans seem to tend to constrain those temporal variations in ways that we refer to as "rhythm". However, we can derive pleasure from hearing musical sounds that are not based on any regular rhythm. One example: Wind chimes. Where do we get this predisposition toward rhythm? Two possibilities come to mind immediately: Locomotion and heartbeats. The way we walk (or trot or run, etc.) may have led us to invent rhythm as part of our music. Likewise, a baby hearing its mother's heartbeat may grow up associating that rhythm with comfort and security. So what kinds of musical rhythms will a creature with a different number and arrangement of legs (or lack thereof), and/or wings or something, create? What if they don't have what we think of as a "heart", but power their circulatory systems by some means that doesn't produce a pulse? Will all their music seem to us to be as random as wind chimes? Or will there be enough other repetitive motion in everyday life (such as when hammering or sawing something) to lead them to invent rhythm anyway? If they do have some rhythm in their music, will it be as strong an influence as it is for us? And what of the various musical pitches? If they have the ability to blow air through lips they may invent horns and trumpets and such. If they do, their horns will be limited to essentially the same series of harmonics as ours. The whole range may be higher or lower, depending on the physics of the situation and their hearing range, but the general set of available notes will be similar. Thus their trumpet fanfares and bugle calls and such should not sound all that alien to us. We could probably play at least some of them on our instruments, and vice versa. Bells and strings and flutes and vocal sounds are a different story. There's an incredible variety of music, some sounding quite alien to Western culture, already being made by Earth people. If their music has as much variety as ours does, there's a chance that some of it may sound familiar to us and some of ours may sound familiar to them. I wouldn't count on it, but I wouldn't rule it out. This needs further thought. ********************* As I was adjusting my festive attire at the recent convention I noticed something lacking: There were no glitter dispensers in the men's room. My lady friends tell me the women's room was similarly bereft. I suspect this is not high on the concom's list of matters to take up with the hotel. So if you want glitter, you'd best bring your own. ********************* According to some theories, black holes emit radiation and thus have an effective temperature. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation The smaller a black hole is, the hotter it is. The larger it is, the colder. Since just about everything that is at a non-zero temperature emits radiation, a black hole that is colder than its surroundings will take in more radiation than it emits, and will grow. If it is hotter than its surroundings it will give off more radiation than it receives, and will shrink. Since a black hole gets hotter and hotter as it gets smaller and smaller this shrinkage will go faster and faster until the black hole vanishes in a final burst of energy. So what does this all mean? If you have have a black hole you want to get rid of, put it in the refrigerator. Keeping the black hole from absorbing the other contents of the refrigerator, including the shelves, is left as an exercise for the reader. Close the refrigerator door (making sure the light shuts off) and wait. If the refrigerator is cold enough, you will eventually hear a muffled WHOOMP from inside. If you then look, the black hole should be gone. The condition of any other contents of the refrigerator is not guaranteed. You should probably have been storing your food and beverages somewhere else. ********************* While we're on scientific stuff, I'm reminded of a recent newspaper picture of a large-billed reed warbler, with a caption referring to it as "probably the least known" bird species in the world. I'm wondering if there is some generally accepted agency that ranks bird species by how well known they are. And how do they know there isn't some other species that's even less well known? For all I know, there may even be species that are not known at all. Is that why they fudged the caption with the word "probably"? ********************* There's currently a scandal in the news where officials at some high school that issues laptop computers to its students have been using the machines' built-in cameras to spy on the students while they were away from school. According to one of the officials involved, the spying capability was originally put in to help recover lost or stolen machines. But its use seems to have gone beyond that. Reportedly at least one student was disciplined by the school for "inappropriate behavior", whatever that means, that happened at home. I'm reminded of another entity that is widely reputed to spy on children: Santa Claus. Consider these lines from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town": He sees you when you're sleeping, He knows when you're awake. He knows when you've been bad or good So be good for goodness' sake. So if it's OK when Santa Claus spies on kids, why isn't it OK when schools do it? Adults (and older children) might reply that Santa Claus isn't real. But to younger children who happen to hear about this spying incident, that difference doesn't apply. So if Santa Claus is real, why is it OK for him to spy on children in their homes while it isn't OK for school officials to do the same? It has been said that if people were governed by angels there would be no need for anything like the checks and balances in the US Constitution. But since we are governed by fallible humans, we do need limits on their powers. We can argue that while Santa Claus may not officially be an angel, he is, or at least started out as, a saint. He may not be infallible, but he is less fallible than normal humans. Therefore it's OK to trust him with the ability to spy on us. He won't abuse it. School officials, on the other hand, are only human. People have also asked "What if the camera happens to catch someone undressing, or maybe even having sex." If the people having sex are above the age of consent, it isn't anyone else's business. So the people doing it should have a right to privacy, free from spy cameras. This traditionally has not applied to Santa Claus because he deals mainly with children too young to have had the Birds and Bees lecture. Children are brought by the stork, or whatever. Mommy and Daddy may kiss and cuddle in bed, but that's It. So that question doesn't arise, or at least didn't arise when I was that age many years ago. Again, the situation with the school is different. The kids who had been spied on with the computers are older, and even if they had been in grade school, I get the impression that children are learning about the mechanics of sex earlier than in generations past. So just because Santa Claus spies on children at home doesn't mean it's OK for schools or other agencies to do it. ********************* Back on scientific stuff, and sort of related to looking at things: The Luck of the Light As I gaze at a twinkling star My mind wanders out into the void, Imagining one photon on its way across years of space To its final destiny in the rods and cones of my eye, Adding its small part to that star's twinkle. Then I think of the photons that were not so lucky As to find their way into my eye Or the eye of a friend, Or even some instrument at the observatory Where they might contribute to our knowledge Even if their beauty is lost. Their doom may come in a dust cloud Halfway here from their star, Or in a cold crater on the backside of the moon, Or perhaps a branch of that leafless tree Silhouetted against the winter sky. And there are those sad few that almost make it, Ending up against my forehead or in my eyelashes, Or perhaps knocking in vain against an eyelid during a blink: So close, but yet so far. Do the gods of the night sky amuse themselves by riding photons, Taking bets on whose will fall where? -- Tom Digby Written 18:16 02/05/2004 Edited 17:49 02/06/2004 ********************* HOW TO GET SILICON SOAPWARE EMAILED TO YOU There are two email lists, one that allows reader comments and one that does not. 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