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Article 5183 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: shanks@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com (Mark Shanks)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Intelligence, awareness, and esthetics
Message-ID: <1992Apr21.212425.9210@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com>
Date: 21 Apr 92 21:24:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: saifr00.1992Apr21.212425.9210
References: <1992Apr21.155531.23910@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Sender: Mark Shanks
Organization: Honeywell Air Transport Systems Division
Lines: 23

>Shannon claimed that the symphonies as played by the "greats" produced higher
>numbers than the same symphonies conducted/performed by less skilled musicians.
>
>The claim was that the _rate_ at which information is transferred along the channel to the receiver is higher for works by the great artists (and by a few
>institutionalized schizophrenics!) than it is for, say, black velvet Elvi.
>
>The implication was that it is completely possible to objectify aesthetics, and
>so justify a claim that some work of art was "better" than another...

If, then, the "rate of transfer" is a quantifier of "value", then a modem 
tone should outdo a Bruckner symphony or a choral work by Arvo Part. This
is certainly specious reasoning. And on what basis was the "greatness" of
the conductor determined? Was Toscanini "greater" than Furtwangler? Is
Matisse a "greater" artist than Brughel? Is haiku "not as great" as Eliot? 
Too many subjectivities to base an "objective" reading on. 

So come on, Mikhail, Daryl, Christoper, Dave, etc. I eagerly await your
inputs.
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Mark Shanks
Principal Engineer, 777 Displays
My opinions, folks, no one else's
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