Gratuitous Icon Post.

[capriuni]

(Icon description: A forest-and-sky landscape rendered in flat blocks of green and blue, the overlaying caption reads: "A tree in the forest will be heard by a forest of ears.")

Originally, I was going to post an entry about how much the Western Koan "If a tree falls in the forest, and no one's there to hear it... Does it make a sound?" sets my teeth on edge.

And then, I wondered if I could express my main point in a 100 x 100 pixel square, instead.

So I tried it. This icon is the result.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

There was a young man who said "God
Must find it exceedingly odd
To think that the tree
Should continue to be
When there's no one about in the quad."

"Dear Sir: Your astonishment's odd;
I am always about in the quad.
And that's why the tree
Will continue to be
Since observed by, Yours faithfully, God."

;-)

[capriuni]

Hee! Anapestic Trimeter ftw!

Though, as an atheist, I'd say that the tree in the quad counts as "Someone," too.

(and of course, as I was finally getting to bed, after working on this far longer than I should have, the writing-editor in me thought of a better way to express the same idea [in the active, rather than passive, voice])

[kaninchen]

That one's always got up my nose too. Certain people think it's soooooo deep and profound and shit and I'm all "Sound being a result of physical processes -- the transmission of transverse waves through various media, air being something of a favourite -- of course it makes a sound. Why is this even an issue? And if you're trying to get at Schrödinger's cat-in-the-box thought experiment it is fundamentally flawed also. To wit: Quantum processes clearly occur without any need for human observation as demonstrated by the universe's continued existence so the atom in the experiment has decayed or not decayed and the cat is dead or not dead. The only thing in question is the observer's knowledge of the state of the quantum system and the cat's life and that will only be resolved by observation. Though there is a fair amount of weird shit in quantum mechanics most of the 'this can't be happening!' can be attributed to human cognitive limitations." At which point I get told I take things too literally and I stopped being comprehensible somewhere around the fourth sentence. Again.

Naturally I also have a ruining-everybody's-fun answer for the beloved stoned-person* question "Is the blue you see the same blue I see?" XD

* At times I have used various legal and illegal substances to recreationally alter my neurochemistry and enjoyed myself immensely; being stoned is hardly a bad thing. I'm just poking at the tendency for some folk to believe themselves really creative and original thinkers while stoned. Back in secondary school (lo these many decades past) some friends and I recorded ourselves while stoned and listened to the tape sober. We gave up on the idea we were anything but intoxicated and just enjoyed that without the pretensions. And destroyed the tape. :p

[capriuni]

"Sound being a result of physical processes -- the transmission of transverse waves through various media, air being something of a favourite -- of course it makes a sound. Why is this even an issue?

As I understand it, the issue is that: "Transverse waves moving through a medium will not become a "sound" until they stimulate aural nerves and are perceived by a brain." If (for example) A asteroid falls on a lifeless planet, transverse waves will radiate from the impact point through the planet's body. And the vibrations will no doubt create a change. But not all vibrations are sound.

The bit that gets up my nose is the implication that the only ears that count as belonging to "someone" are ears like mine.

If a tree is in a Forest, there will Always be SOMEONE there to hear it.

A "forest," by definition, is: A complex ecosystem dominated by trees, and inhabited by myriad creatures {ants, birds, rabbits, dear, fish, wolves, bears ...} on which the trees depend for their survival.

This whole saw implies that the only lifeforms that count are the humans. That no other life is capable of perceiving and understanding, and everything else on Earth is only a robotic backdrop to be exploited for our own gain.

I've never, as far as I can remember, dabbled in intoxication by intent. Most of my weird ideas bubble up when I'm simply tired, or in the altered-consciousness state of dreams.