As the year continues, many of these posts will be philosophical in nature. Some will be in contradiction to previous postings. These are not intended as truths or assertions, they’re merely thoughts…ideas. Think of this as stream of consciousness over a wide span…
This past week, something from the 16th week of this series was bouncing around in my head again, “sound has mass.”
Even in that post, I didn’t really commit to that idea. I said it, “…sort of,” does. As I’ve mentioned at the start of almost every one of these, these are stream of consciousness and will likely contradict one another. [ed. see italicized above]
This is one of those times, because something has been bugging me since posting that thought (before it actually). What about the “sonification” of data from observed phenomenon? Especially those “sounds of space” that NASA likes to post every once in a while. You might argue that those aren’t really sounds, because we can’t hear them without converting them. Think about how we hear though? Sounds we perceive are just interpretations of physical vibrations. Our hearing organs are transducers that convert pressure waves (caused by vibrations) into electrical signals that our brain can interpret…which we perceive as sound. So, if something is normally outside the conversion/interpretation limitations of our hearing abilities, does that mean it’s not sound?
My answer is, “no.” Any vibration can be sound, we just need the right tools to interpret it.
I agree. But, we have “tool” already. It’s our bodies, right? Skin, as our biggest organ, can receive physical effect of sound also. Yeah, i know it’s kind a streched for your interpretation :) – but in my interpretation, sound has mass, light, energy, length, depth and – which i especially love – time. Great sunday thoughts, btw :)