more "preservation"

I'm still interested in this whole concept of the preservation
of music and, yes, it is related to tuning... and how music in
various tuning systems is preserved...

I find it ironic that some of the OLDEST civilizations, the
Babylonians and Sumerians, for instance, according to Monz, used the
MOST permanent materials that could last thousands of years.
Likewise the use of parchment in the earlier civilizations.

In our "modern" times, we use paper that could last 100 years or
less, and magnetic media that will last 10 years, if we're lucky.

Why is this?? Could it be due to the fact that materials can be
"reprinted" or copied so much easier?? Or do we takes ourselves less
seriously than our forebears?? Do we perhaps feel that we have
nothing that needs to be preserved for that long?? If that's the
answer, maybe we're right (!!) and the early civs had perhaps a
misplaced sense of their own importance (??)

Is there a sense that things change so much, there is no reason to
preserve?? A tuning system we invent today, will be replaced
tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow?? Likewise a technical format,
magnetic medium, whatever. Those are getting replaced the fastest.

Graham Breed mentioned saving things on the Internet. Well, this
sounds like a wise idea... But, will the Internet really be around in
10 years?? No, that's not a laughable conception... it has ONLY BEEN
around for the last 5 years... at least in great popularity (post
it's early use for scientific exchange). Maybe there will be some
other transmission format entirely (??) Maybe unlikely, but WHO
KNOWS??

Many young people today don't even remember LP records. Although
there are are few fans here and there, they generally make best use
today as frisbees...

Now there's talk of replacing CD collections with DVDs (a good
business proposition)

Maybe we have a "higher consciousness" of change in our civ, and
basically know it is futile to even BOTHER saving things (??) Or we
know that anything worth preserving will either be COPIED or
transmuted from generation to generation. (??)

In a funny way, it's related to the earliest human ORAL transmission,
that Monz frequently talks about, and which, apparently, is our
LENGTHIEST heritage (??) Are we "back to the future??"

_____________ ____ __ _
Joseph Pehrson

--- In tuning@egroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <pehrson@p...> wrote:

> http://www.egroups.com/message/tuning/16215
>
> I find it ironic that some of the OLDEST civilizations, the
> Babylonians and Sumerians, for instance, according to Monz,
> used the MOST permanent materials that could last thousands
> of years. Likewise the use of parchment in the earlier
> civilizations.
>
> In our "modern" times, we use paper that could last 100 years or
> less, and magnetic media that will last 10 years, if we're lucky.
>
> Why is this?? Could it be due to the fact that materials can be
> "reprinted" or copied so much easier?? Or do we takes ourselves
> less seriously than our forebears?? Do we perhaps feel that we
> have nothing that needs to be preserved for that long?? If
> that's the answer, maybe we're right (!!) and the early civs
> had perhaps a misplaced sense of their own importance (??)
>
> <snip>
>
> Maybe we have a "higher consciousness" of change in our civ,
> and basically know it is futile to even BOTHER saving things (??)
> Or we know that anything worth preserving will either be COPIED
> or transmuted from generation to generation. (??)
>
> In a funny way, it's related to the earliest human ORAL
> transmission, that Monz frequently talks about, and which,
> apparently, is our LENGTHIEST heritage (??) Are we "back to
> the future??"

Joe, I'm fascinated by the ideas you bring up in this post, and
indeed, have thought much about them myself already.

For example, in contrast to the old-fashioned view of historians
of writing systems that writing has 'progressed' from ideographic
(i.e., Egyptian hieroglyphics) to syllablic (i.e., most writing
from Babylonian to Sanskrit) to alphabetic (Semitic and Greek
and most modern systems), I find it *extremely* interesting that
today we use *icons* on our computer screens to represent not
just complex concepts but *entire software applications*! Seems
to me like we've gone right back to hieroglyphics again!!

AFAIK, no one's ever noticed this before...

Lest anyone think this is off-topic, I believe that it relates
very much to problems of notating music, especially microtonal
music. I sometimes view my own lattice diagrams are another
sort of iconic representation.

-monz
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
'All roads lead to n^0'