The Logic Off Topic list

Thoughts from the mind of John Matthews, 10-11-2001:

>Hendrik wrote:
>>  Wah...  A tiny portion of what we call "music" can be represented by
>>  numbers -- tears in eyes, Bach etc.......
>
>yes, but a digital recording of that piece, has, by the definition of
>digital, been reduced to numbers, has it not?? is the emotion therefore lost
>on a CD or other digital media?
>
>I'd say , No.

Leaving out stuff like quantisation errors... :-)  I'd agree with 
you.  Of course you can reduce almost anything to numbers.  However, 
to me a description is not the same as a representation.  A digital 
recording would be a representation and not a description.
"Description" to me seems to imply something about "meaningfulness". 
Clearly a bunch of 1's and 0's on a CD is not bvery meaningful.

>To be able to describe something by using numbers does not devalue it IMHO.

Again, I would  use the word "represent" instead of describe.  But 
maybe that's just me.

cheers,
HJ
-- 
     Hendrik Jan Veenstra
     email: mailto:h@...
     www:   http://www.ision.nl/users/h/index.html