1/F noise
Ron Eglash, RPI
1. Two ways to represent information:
Analog vs Digital
2. Two paths of information flow:
Linear
Recursive
A Humanities Problem
We know how to analyze text. But how do we
analyze non-textual artifacts: film, image, sculpture,
architecture, dance, music?
a. Reject the modernist, romantic organicist solution:
Rousseau, Marshall Mcluhan, Walter Ong etc.
erroneously claim:
• Non-textual is “The Real”--not representation
•Speech is natural, Writing is artificial
•Indigenous culture = oral culture = natural, child-like
How do we analyze non-textual artifacts: film, image,
sculpture, architecture, dance, music?
b. Reject the postmodernist solution: Jacques Derrida
(“On Grammatology”) correctly points out that we are
always already representational
BUT he erronously claims
• the non-textual is just another form of writing
• all representation is a series of symbols
How do we analyze non-textual artifacts: film, image,
sculpture, architecture, dance, music?
c. Accept that there are TWO forms of representation:
DIGITAL
ANALOG
Writing
Linguistic speech
Symbols
Codes
Music
Paralinguistic
intonation
Dance
Architecture
What is digital representation?
In digital representation, information is ARBITRARILY
assigned to a physical signal:
“There is nothing sevenish about the numeral 7”
What is analog representation?
In analog representation, information are
PROPORTIONAL to physical signal changes:
A
waveform
in
“semantic
space” will
be
physically
reflected in
analog but
not digital
What is analog representation?
Consider a chick peeping in proportion to hunger:
What is analog representation?
Consider a chick peeping in proportion to hunger:
Cycles with cycles within cycles of information is reflected by
cycles within cycles within cycles of physical signals: a fractal
structure.
How to measure “fractalness”
of sound?
Consider periodic sound wave
Pure order: all power at one frequency.
How to measure “fractalness”
of sound?
Consider random sound wave
Pure disorder: power equal across all frequencies
How to measure “fractalness”
of sound?
Consider fractal sound wave
Music is a fractal sound wave: longer-term patterns have more
power. This “1/F” power spectrum shows a fractal
Music pitch
over time is
analog, and
thus fractal
Speech pitch
over time is
digital, and
not fractal
Both music and speech
come from recursive
neural activity, but
speech codes the
information by physically
arbitrary waveforms.
Analog representation
shows physical changes
proportionate to the
information changes, so
recursive information
shows up as physically
recursive waveforms: a
fractal!
Are whales speaking or singing?
Reggae
music is
more
analog
Rap
music is
more
digital