Klarinet Archive - Posting 001038.txt from 2004/03

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Pitch perception
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 19:27:12 -0500

Forest Aten wrote:

> I listened to a very interesting discussion by a
> leading proponent of "string theory" physics,
> (on NPR yesterday).

Brian Greene?

> If the string theorists are correct, it would
> mean that we have many more than three
> dimensions surrounding us. (as many as ten
> minimum predicted by mathematical
> equations) I wonder if this could/would
> account for many of the differences between
> real and perceived sounds?

How? These 'curled up' dimensions can't be perceived.

The differences are accounted for fairly easily (and reproducibly) by
the fact that even the best 'human machine' must discard (or ignore or
not measure in the first place) some available data at any moment in
time, and therefore our perception never equals exactly what's out
there.

Equally significant, we are 'wired' (and need to be wired) to categorize
our perceptions --- eg: "This is a clarinet, it's playing C# right now
[even though there are many frequencies in addition to C# in the sound,
and I suppose it's C# at A=440, but since I don't have perfect absolute
pitch, I'm not sure and I'll ignore this possibility in order to call it
C#]" --- and hence the mental 'images' that we extract from every
perception are, by definition, altered a tiny bit in order to fit into a
'meaningful' category.

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