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Article 4416 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: santas@inf.ethz.ch (Philip Santas)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Infinite Minds?
Message-ID: <1992Mar11.214547.28524@neptune.inf.ethz.ch>
Date: 11 Mar 92 21:45:47 GMT
References: <1992Mar10.165603.11788@neptune.inf.ethz.ch> <1992Mar11.135759.4941@cs.ucf.edu>
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In article <1992Mar11.135759.4941@cs.ucf.edu> clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke) writes:
>In article <1992Mar10.165603.11788@neptune.inf.ethz.ch> santas@inf.ethz.ch
>(Philip Santas) writes:
>| There seems to be no evidence against "digital functioning" of the human
>| nerves. Furthermore, humans have no problem to accept digitized picture
>| and sound.
>| If humans do not operate under this model then they must have an
>| "analogical functioning" which would observe all the problems related
>| to digital functioning: listening to a CD would have been nothing more
>| than listening to Morse code...
>
>Don't every say this to a dyed in the wool audiophile.  You'll get a very
>vigorous argument (or flame on rec.audio) about the big mistake made in going
>from the analog LP to the digital CD.  The autdiophiles believe something is
>missing from the digital CD that is captured in the analog LP.  As a true

Dust? The need for the traditional mystic care of the LPs? 
Psychological binding with their LPs? 

In such case their understanding of music is FILTERED by their prejudices.

>believer in Mr. Nyquist's theorem, I have my doubts about this, but physics and
>mathematics are not complete (never will be, math anyway), so maybe the
>audiophiles are on to something.

Relevant objections have been heard during the introduction of
digital clocks, or watches. In any case digital technology offers
sound of higher quality and precision (you can listen to the
smallest sound a violinist produces during the performance).

Stephen Smoliar has written an article of the possibility of a form of 
understanding music without listening to it. If such form
is possible, then the audiophiles you mention have a very narrow and poor
understanding.

>At the risk of crossing to the quantum thread, here is a thought experiment
>that shows how things are not as cut and dried as one might like in the
>analog/digital arena.
>
> [deleted text: description of experiment]
>
>The question is open, the D/A-process-A/D and/or the
>transducer/network/transducer chain may or may not be quantum mechanically
>equivalent to an analog amplifier. 

Excuse me, but aren't digital circuits including elements that have
analog function? Even if your nerves are made of analog elements,
this does not mean that your neural system behaves this way.
There is evidence that supports the digital functioning, and I do
not see any reason why we should rush to abandon this theory BEFORE we
get evidence for the contrary.

> If the answer is no/yes it would be strong
>evidence for the reality of the audiophile's perception of LP/CD differences

As already mentioned above these subjective differences may arise from reasons
completely irrelevant to audio-perception.

>and for what
>zeleny@coolidge.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:
>|Nonsense.  Why is m, the number of all possible sign-types, a finite
>|number?
>
>Anyone out there have any good ideas to shorten the analysis?

Dito.

Philip Santas
 
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