Date:         Mon, 8 Jan 2007 20:40:13 -0500
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         "Steven C. Barr(x)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Digital in a post-digital universe--was: Interesting WSJ
              Article on when libraries should discard their holdings
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
>   I wonder, do you suppose some future generation might try to reconstruct the
noise we removed when we restored some audio?
>
>   Brave new world here we come...I wonder if I am beginning to sound like my
father...
>
Well...we have no actual basis for assuming that ALL living beings
(including extra-planetary ones) will, or even CAN CONSIDER, using
sonic vibrations as an important means of communication! Or, for
that matter, if they DO that they use the same band of frequencies
we do! It is entirely possible that Ecru communicates with other
felines using "supersonic" frequencies; it is also possible that
the intelligent species of the planet Bfltsplk communicate using
light waves or other electromagnetic phenomena, and as such would
have NO concept of "hearing!"

Further, there may be other sorts of processes that are used for
communication that are so foreign to our comprehension that they
would never occur to us as being possible...!

One of my favourite quotes (don't recall from whom)...

"The universe is not only stranger than we imagine...it is
stranger than we CAN imagine!"

Steven C. Barr