embracethevoid
Rising Star
All solid matter conducts sound. If we pass sound through a brick, its passing is observed as waves. We call these waves "phonons". Phonons have resonance modes, different configurations, notes, harmonics, and all the things you'd think of when you think about "sound".
Everything has a natural harmonic frequency. This is called its 'natural frequency'. You observe this effect for instance when armies march over certain bridges. If they march at the right pace (wrong for them!), they can shake the bridge so hard it collapses and kills them all. When something is hit with its resonant frequency, the phonons get amplified with a feedback loop, so little energy is lost. The butterfly effect creates a tornado instead of a vague movement of winds.
So if you pass sound through a brick, you'll get one kind of phonon, a standing wave. This is like an echo that resonates back and forth inside of the brick. The brick then produces
its own sound in response to make a remix.
If you pass sound through a piece of wood, same thing.
Through some water... same thing, and it looks really pretty to boot.
Through a metal bowl... same thing, and it sounds amazing when it's a particular shape (e.g. tibetan singing bowl)
Now think about a human brain. A human brain has no OFF switch. It is ON from the moment it is born till the moment it does. This is a particular type of matter.
When you pass sound through this block of matter, again, you get a standing wave. A phonon. It's a much more complex phonon shape than those previous examples.
In common perception we think of the human brain simply as taking in vibrations at the ear drum and "processing" them. We look at it clinically, our words giving no significance to the true beauty of what is actually happening: Your brain is dancing.
The brain does not "convert" sound into other things. The brain is ALREADY made of sound. What you are hearing is the phonon that passes through the ear drum, through the nerves connecting it to the brain and into the auditory cortex. At no point is this phonon destroyed. At no point does it lose its structure. Its structure IS the process of converting into "sound".
Because that's the standing wave that brain tissue resonates with.
In the same way that light refracts when it hits water, so do phonons refract and diffract through the human brain. The echo does come out. Just as you pass sound through a flute, it echoes through the hollow of the flute and comes out of the other end... thus do you pass sound into the ears of a human being and it comes out of many ends. Now what do you think about simple things such as having a conversation? Dancing? Chanting? Breathing?
When you reply to someone's words, the phonon enters through the ears, does a whole circuit round the body and comes out as your reply. Same phonon that came in, same phonon that came out. And off it goes into another person's ears.
What does this mean? As we see mighty trees around us of wood, there are trees we do not see. There are ancient primal trees, trees made of sound. They have roots in the distant past: an ancient mammal hits his head against a rock, "ugh" is the root. They have trunks, stems, branches, they have leaves that blow in the wind, dispersing pollen and resonating into eternity. We only observe them in one way: language. Truly music is the echo of the passing of time.
I hope this blew your mind the way it did my own.
Everything has a natural harmonic frequency. This is called its 'natural frequency'. You observe this effect for instance when armies march over certain bridges. If they march at the right pace (wrong for them!), they can shake the bridge so hard it collapses and kills them all. When something is hit with its resonant frequency, the phonons get amplified with a feedback loop, so little energy is lost. The butterfly effect creates a tornado instead of a vague movement of winds.
So if you pass sound through a brick, you'll get one kind of phonon, a standing wave. This is like an echo that resonates back and forth inside of the brick. The brick then produces
its own sound in response to make a remix.
If you pass sound through a piece of wood, same thing.
Through some water... same thing, and it looks really pretty to boot.
Through a metal bowl... same thing, and it sounds amazing when it's a particular shape (e.g. tibetan singing bowl)
Now think about a human brain. A human brain has no OFF switch. It is ON from the moment it is born till the moment it does. This is a particular type of matter.
When you pass sound through this block of matter, again, you get a standing wave. A phonon. It's a much more complex phonon shape than those previous examples.
In common perception we think of the human brain simply as taking in vibrations at the ear drum and "processing" them. We look at it clinically, our words giving no significance to the true beauty of what is actually happening: Your brain is dancing.
The brain does not "convert" sound into other things. The brain is ALREADY made of sound. What you are hearing is the phonon that passes through the ear drum, through the nerves connecting it to the brain and into the auditory cortex. At no point is this phonon destroyed. At no point does it lose its structure. Its structure IS the process of converting into "sound".
Because that's the standing wave that brain tissue resonates with.
In the same way that light refracts when it hits water, so do phonons refract and diffract through the human brain. The echo does come out. Just as you pass sound through a flute, it echoes through the hollow of the flute and comes out of the other end... thus do you pass sound into the ears of a human being and it comes out of many ends. Now what do you think about simple things such as having a conversation? Dancing? Chanting? Breathing?
When you reply to someone's words, the phonon enters through the ears, does a whole circuit round the body and comes out as your reply. Same phonon that came in, same phonon that came out. And off it goes into another person's ears.
What does this mean? As we see mighty trees around us of wood, there are trees we do not see. There are ancient primal trees, trees made of sound. They have roots in the distant past: an ancient mammal hits his head against a rock, "ugh" is the root. They have trunks, stems, branches, they have leaves that blow in the wind, dispersing pollen and resonating into eternity. We only observe them in one way: language. Truly music is the echo of the passing of time.
I hope this blew your mind the way it did my own.
