How do you know if a tree that fell in the forest made a sound? - eviltoast

You check the crash logs

  • NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    it doesn’t. It creates sound waves that travel through the air causing it to vibrate. What you hear is your body’s interpretation of those vibrations as the enter your ear and shake the little hairs inside of your ear canal.

    Fun fact this is why sound and taste is subjective. I may like the sound of one persons voice and you find it annoying.

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        It’s an ontological argument. OP is creating a categorical distinction where “sound” is the cognitive process by which pressure waves are perceived, eg as information. I think it’s a fairly common distinction to make, but it is also kind of unsatisfying is the sense that it feels a bit like linguistic nihilism.

      • cynar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Is tinnitus a sound?

        Is bone conduction sound?

        Are the signals a cochlear implant produce sound?

        Sound is a perception. Sound waves are what can generate that perception. But sound doesn’t always require soundwaves, so there is a difference.

        It’s very much a “dancing on the head of a pin” distinction, but the baseline joke also requires it.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          Yes, those all are sounds.

          From Wikipedia:

          Tinnitus is a variety of sound that is heard when no corresponding external sound is present.

          Should have been more distinct. Sounds are just vibration, they don’t need to go through air.

          • cynar@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            But neither tinnitus or cochlear implants have any vibration associated. If they are sounds then sounds are more than just vibrations. At the same time, not all vibrations are sounds.

            The argument is that sound is part of our internal processing of sensations. If there is no brain to perceive it, is it a sound, or just a vibration in the air?

      • NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Right. It doesn’t make a sound. It vibrates the air. Your ears interpret those vibrations as sound. They move through the air in a wave like pattern originating from the source.

        • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Are you earnestly saying sound only exists if someone hears it?

          A sound, also known as “air vibrations” to some, exists independently of a listener. It does not “become sound” only if someone hears it.

          • NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            This is wading into philosophical areas but think about this. We defined what sound is and if there are no biological creatures around to hear a sound or interpret its vibrations, than no there wasn’t a sound. Something fell, a reaction occurred and without an observer there is no sound since there was nothing there when the event occurred.

            Also I’m reading more into this and reforming my opinions based on new information so this is an evolving position for me.

            • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              This isn’t philosophy, It’s wankery.

              Sound is a matter of Newtonian physics, which do not in any way care about linguistics or perception.

              The universe is not so concerned with our perspective that it changes itself to suit us.

    • winged_fluffy@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Yes and no. It all depends in what field you’re describing sound. In physics, a tree that fell in the forest most definitely made a sound. In psychology, it doesn’t.

      In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.

      In human physiology and psychology, sound is the reception of such waves and their perception by the brain.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound

      To be honest, I’m with the physicists.