Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I had a simple thought a couple years ago that still fascinates me. If you do something as simple as "clap clap clap" (with equal measures of time), you can naturally relate it to any other set of sounds with that simple pattern (ABABA). moreover, there is a 1 to 1 relation of this abstraction in space, where one can represent the sounds as marks on a screen (as I have done here for example, as "clap clap clap, X X X, - - -, or whatever).

Despite the different sensory systems (sound, or visual) and the difference in actual data (I don't know how many photons or audio waves entering your brain), we can abstract them down and understand/relate them with a simple pattern.




I think you would enjoy reading James Gleick's The Information!

Edit0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_drum

It begins by talking about this, maybe that's a good start! It documents that they are able to transmit complex messages like jokes and proverbs entirely through rhythm!


Thanks! checking it out now


What you illustrate is deeply fascinating. In music, there is a grammatical perception that works both cognitively and as an embodied experience.


Yes, but its not just music. Our senses are very much linked in that we can build a one to one relation of ideas in visual space to auditory space and vice versa. There is a common abstract model we understand so to speak.

Our model of perception is very finely tuned with that of space-time.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: