[f_minor] Glenn Gould Bach and the Voyager[s] leaving our SolarSystem

Wed Dec 15 10:10:42 EST 2010

Right you are, Bob, as usual, forgot to mention the heliosphere. And I thought the way to the Pub would be long and endless when you are thirsty...

One can spin tall tales, ideas and probabilities. Rest assured that even famous theoretical phycisists and cosmologists had their 2 cents to add to the problem, including Dawkins, Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Untill the Little Green Men will be knocking on me door demanding I hand over my GG collection (and Chuck Berry, no doubt) asap we won't know for sure.  Here is the infamous Fermi Paradox for you all to comtemplate on. Oh, and don't worry, I usually get a headache from too much theoretical pyhsics, cosmology and the Planck World too....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

Voayger leaving, out into space...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bebHG--W8s0

From: Robert Merkin 
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 7:03 AM
To: Discussion of the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. 
Subject: Re: [f_minor] Glenn Gould Bach and the Voyager[s] leaving our SolarSystem

Hahahaha Thanks James! I should have remembered it was Sagan!

But the impression we eventually make on the thousands of sentient races in the Milky Way isn't a trivial, meaningless or fantastic business. We've now sent out our first greeting cards and sound samplers.

How will they think of us? After the Bach, they'll know where Earth is and will focus in on us. They'll be looking for more of Gould's Bach (and of course more Chuck Berry).

But what will they truly find? How will they truly think of us?

Drake's Equation 

N = R* x f(p) x n(e) x f(e) x f(i) x f(c) x L 

is a long product used to estimate the number of sentient races in the Milky Way. We know confident values for all the terms except the last term L:

Once a species invents radio, how long after that, on average, will it survive? 

We have only one example we can use to interpolate/guess a value for L. The human race invented radio around 1900.

Our same race dropped two atomic bombs on ourselves just 45 years later, and about 7 years after that tested thermonuclear bombs hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs. Superpowers still have thousands of these bombs atop thousands of highly accurate intercontinental missiles. 

Since the Cold War "ended," our diplomats and national leaders talk less about using them. But they're still there. The bombers, missiles, and "boomer" submarines are still a button-push away from targeting and launching their missiles.

When our new friends and admiring music fans beyond the Solar System come looking for more of Earth's magnificent achievements ...

The fascinating answer to the question: Are we alone? is best told in "Intelligent Life in the Universe" (1966) by Carl Sagan and the Russian astrophysicist I.S. Shklovskii. It's beautifully written, and assumes the intelligent reader knows nothing about astronomy, biochemistry or physics, as it gently and expertly explains every concept needed to search for our intelligent neighbors. I can't urge this book on all of you too highly; it was one of the most thrilling reading adventures I ever had. Whether we've ever thought about it or not, we all have a right to know where and how we "fit in" in the universe.

Bob
Earth (and sometimes Planet Vleeptron)

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: James Wright 
  To: f_minor list 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 11:51 PM
  Subject: Re: [f_minor] Glenn Gould Bach and the Voyager[s] leaving our Solar System

  It was Carl Sagan who quipped "That would be bragging!" (in reply to the proposal that the Voyager golden audio disc should contain all Bach and only Bach ).  Lewis Thomas allegedly added (or so the story goes): "I would vote for Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging of course but it is surely excusable to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later."

  James K. Wright, Ph.D. 

  Associate Professor &
  Supervisor of Performance Studies
  School for Studies in Art & Culture: Music
  A917 Loeb Building, Carleton University
  1125 Colonel By Drive
  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada  K1S 5B6
  Email: James_Wright at carleton.ca
  Telephone : (613) 520-2600 (ext. 3734)
  Fax : (613) 520-3905

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: bobmerk at earthlink.net
  To: f_minor at glenngould.org
  Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:43:16 -0500
  Subject: Re: [f_minor] Glenn Gould Bach and the Voyager[s] leaving our Solar System

  Somebody, I forget who, said that sending Gould's Bach into outer space isn't sharing Earth sounds with sentient life forms who find and play Voyagers' golden audio discs. 

  It's just bragging. 

  So we Earthoids may get a rep as the braggarts of the Milky Way.

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