Metatuning Debunked - Part 1

When faced with a question, what does a reasonable person do?

Does a reasonable person head off on a tangent and spend the
rest of hi/r life pursuing whatever spur-of-the-moment
belief happens to seem momentarily plausible?

A follower of a cult like the Heavens Gate cult would say
"yes." Cult members typically skim some passage in a book or
some sentence on the internet and then spend the rest of
their lives in the service of that vacuous superstition.
But is that how a reasonable person behaves?

While you mull that question over, let's consider a
recent post from the metatuning list:

[metatuning] Message 7037 of 7039
Msg #
From: "Aaron K. Johnson" <akjmicro@c...>
Date: Thu Apr 8, 2004 3:41 am
Subject: Gene--do you have a Yahoo ID?......

"(..) I also have a lot of technical math curiosity
questions to ask you---I need a 'tuning math tutor'."
---------------
"At the heart of science is an essential tension between two
seemingly contradictory attitudes -- an openness to new
ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may
be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas,
old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep
nonsense. Of course, scientists make mistakes in trying to
understand the world, but there is a built-in error-
correcting mechanism: The collective enterprise of creative
thinking and skeptical thinking together keeps the field on
track." -- [Sagan, Carl, "The Fine Art of Baloney
Detection," from "The Demon-Haunted World," 1992]
------------
Instead of wallowing in mindless superstition, suppose we
apply critical thinking and the test of evidence...

Why does any musician need a "tuning math tutor"? Where is
the hard objectively verifiable evidence for this assertion?

Let us see it. Where is it?

What is the objectively verifiable evidence that proves math
has any causal connection or explanatory power for music?
How do we know math plays any more of a role in music than a
table of the annual rainfall statistics of the Amazon basin?

When faced with a question, what does a reasonable person do?

Does a reasonable person spend his life pursuing some wacky
notion he read on the internet just because somebody made
the claim without offering a shred of proof?

A flat-earther or a psychic surgeon would would say
"yes." Such people typically read a pamphlet handed out
by some guy with a shaved head and then spend the rest
of their lives enslaved by that vacuous superstition.
But is that how a reasonable person behaves?

Or does a reasonable person instead apply "the most
ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new" and
first ascertain whether a claim actually has some
objectively verifiable relationship to observed reality?

So let us apply common sense and the test of reality to Aaron
K. Johnson's post.

What is the hard objectively verifiable evidence that math
has any causal connection to music? What is the hard
objectively verifiable evidence that math has any
explanatory power for music?

Aaron K. Johnson goes on to aver:
"The irony is that I *adore* math... (..) Ultimately, I want
the math to serve the music."

What is the evidence that math serves music in any meaningful
way?

What is the hard objectively verifiable evidence that math
has any meaningful connection to music at all?

Which listening tests, performed by which tenured professors
at which accredited university, and published in which reputable
peer-reviewed scientific journals, prove that mathematics has any
causal connection with, or explanatory power for, music?

What are the issue numbers and the volume numbers and the
page numbers of the peer-reviewed journal articles of listening
experiments which prove that Aaron K. Johnson's assertions about the
alleged connection of math with music are true?

=========

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've
been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence
of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out
the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too
painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we've
been so credulous. (So the old bamboozles tend to persist as
the new bamboozles rise.)" -- [Sagan, Carl, "The Fine Art of
Baloney Detection," from "The Demon-Haunted World," 1992]
---------
--mclaren