reply to Carl Lumma on evolution

Carl, I just meant I didn't think that {whatever characteristics of the
ear and brain make us latch on to simple integer ratios} will be
selected for to such an extent that future humans will be able to pin
down fractions like 634/501 in music. I already stated in the same
discussion that it's easy to hear the difference between 400 cents and a
just 5/4.

Message text written by INTERNET:tuning@onelist.com
>From: "Paul H. Erlich" <PErlich@Acadian-Asset.com>

Carl, I just meant I didn't think that {whatever characteristics of the
ear and brain make us latch on to simple integer ratios} will be
selected for to such an extent that future humans will be able to pin
down fractions like 634/501 in music. I already stated in the same
discussion that it's easy to hear the difference between 400 cents and a
just 5/4.<

I'll go Erlich one further on this. In all likelihood, given the present
aoustical environment, ability to listen over a wide frequency range is not
going to be a favored trait for selection.

I recently went for an ear exam. My Doctor is a 75 year-old semi-retired
HNO specialist. He went on at great length about the decline of hearing
during his lifetime, with machinery and amplification the largest factors
in the decline. He also noted that he felt it was fortunate for his
patients that they spoke German, or, in my case, English, languages which
were phonological more sturdy under losses of higher frequencies. Whether
composers in the future will compose within a more limited frequency range
to accomodate a unversally reduced hearing, or continue to compose to those
in full posession of their vestigial ten octaves is an interesting, if sad,
question.