OK I Lied
March 27, 2008 by dave
I said no blog until the 31st but I just read a fascinating article that I had to share.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/arts/27soun.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
The New York Times has a great article today about scientists discovering work by a French typesetter working to create visual representations of sound.
Now an accurate visual representation of sound is a recording just as much as digital information encoded on to a CD. Scientists from Berkley discovered how to reverse engineer as it were the visual representations made by the French typesetter back into the sound that was recorded.
The result is a 10 second audio clip from 1860 of a woman sining Au Claire De La Lune, A classic French song that I’ve heard countless times growing up learning French in the Canadian school system.
The French typesetter called his invention of recording the sound a Phonautogram and it predates by 17 years the first known recording of sound by Edison, when he recorded Mary Has a Little Lamb in 1877.
Now this article sparked a sci-fi idea in my head, like most cool stories do.
What if we started creating instruments sensitive enough to pick up patterns on everyday object that were nearby when you and I were talking in a room? Sound waves bounce off everything around them, our eardrums vibrate when the waves hit them. What is to say there isn’t a perceptible change in the atomic structure of your desk whenever a sound hits it?
What if we could take a painting that has hung in the Oval Office and listen to all the conversations that it has witnessed?
What is we could analyze the Mona Lisa and hear what DiVinci told his model while she was posing?
The price of antiques would rise I think, but so would the value of some every day objects.
Oooo, Cool idea.
Here’s another reason to blog: 1.5 million pound lottery winner goes back to work - AT MCDONALD’s! - after 18 month absence. He missed his friends.
And, apparently he’s not the only one. There have been several lottery winners in the UK who have gone back to work at minimum wage jobs.
Is it different there, do you think?
Here’s a link: http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/dailynews/2008/03/24/the-lottery-winners-who-just-couldn-t-give-up-the-9-to-5-89520-20361803/
@Charlene
Yes it’s different there in a few ways. From the people I’ve talked to that went to school there, you do get a basic education on how to handle money to a degree.
So while people know they are well off and don’t have to work, they don’t tend to go fucking bonkers and blow the load becoming destitute in a week.
But people in North America too who didn’t blow the money I think might go back to work too.
I don’t get bored. Ever. I think I’m a rare exception. If I had that kind of money I wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near a workplace, I can guarantee you, but there are a lot of people who just don’t know how to fill those 8 extra hours + commute time a day.
I can guarantee you the Mr. Pittard, had no close friends or at least no close friends with any active imagination.
Calli Rogers working part time as a receptionist after winning 1.8 million pounds… the thought just makes me cry. Why is she not off with a close friend backpacking across the world? Hell screw backpacking with that money taking cabs and staying in hotels.
I understand the need for structure, which is the main reason these people go back to work. I am frequently bored. If I won, I would have to create some structure or I would become an 800 pound couch potato. But it certainly wouldn’t involve working for a boss. I would probably volunteer part-time and then just have fun. That fuin might involve studying or starting my own business. But working for a paycheque???? Nope.
How can you never be bored? My therapist made the same claim. As a matter of fact, she didn’t believe me when I said I was easily bored. She thought it must be something else. But I think I can recognize boredom when I feel it.
i can understand never being bored if you love your work (and have a close circle of family and or friends with whom you share common interests for the times you don’t work). But, in that case, why would you be so eager to not work?
@Charlene
Darlene shares the interests that I like to do when I am not working. She likes travel, she likes camping and fishing, she’s interested in photography and art just like I am. She loves snorkeling and scuba and hanging at a beach.
If we had the funds to do these things all the time we’d be happier but she also likes gaming with me on the computer with friends, we have similar taste in movies, I read faster than she does but she’s big on reading too.
If we get tired of any one of these things we can do another. Never am I not interested in doing any of them.
Our main problem if neither of us had to work would be our schedule. I’d want to sleep from around 3:30 - 4:00 am to noon-1pm That’s where my body is in it’s niche. She’s a get up at 8-9am and go to bed at 11:00ish type.
Oh, to not have to work for a living. I don’t bore easily either as I have a lot of interests too. My 3D puzzles, my computer games, my movies, my books, etc. I could take up art again as well, buy a car and just drive off somewhere. Just imagine all the things you can do with a little freedom!
cool and frightening idea all at once. walls really would talk. along with everything else.
i don’t think i’d work if i didn’t have to. travel definately and volunteer but not work.