Klarinet Archive - Posting 000119.txt from 2002/07

From: w7wright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] Marvin Minsky article, cited by TonyPay
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2002 14:09:06 -0400

It has taken me several months (!!) to read the article by Marvin Minsky
which Tony Pay cited earlier.

One particular paragraph sums up (states more clearly than I ever have)
my feeling about language vs. music:

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0My best guess is that music became possible because of
some anatomical innovation that just happens to facilitate interactions
between other, older functions -- for example between some of the brain
that does planning for paths in space and some of the parts involved
with language, or story-like memory systems. If that were the case, it
might explain why hearing certain kinds of sounds might come to give you
the feeling that you understood something, or give you the experience of
being in some other place.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

What is the purpose of a language? =A0 To be beautiful or wise or
pleasurable in itself? Or to describe many different things ---
beautiful or not --- to other people? This is why the question of
whether music is a 'language' is relevant.

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