Re: Quantum theory: A resonance effect?

> No offense but that seems to me to be a bit of
> an over generalization.

What exactly is the over-generalization? The notion that the world is
entirely analog, and the only thing that makes it discrete is
resonance?

Think about it. There are two kinds of events or happenings in the
universe: cataclysmic chaotic unpredictable unique events, and periodic
regular repeating events. Every one of the latter that I can think of
are examples of resonance of one sort or another.

The most prominent example of the former is the Big Bang itself--a
single, unique, unitary event that could never have possibly been
predicted (if anything existed before it to make that prediction), and
it will never happen again, or at least if it does, it must also come
as a complete un-predictable surprise.

But that cataclysmic creational thunderclap left countless billions of
echos in its wake, in the form of particles, which are standing-wave
resonances of that primordial energy resonating round and round at
various harmonic frequencies, and the microwave background radiation,
which actually only *peaks* at microwave frequency, but leaves traces
across the spectrum at different frequencies, and every one of these
waves is itself a kind of oscillatory resonance, except in the form of
travelling waves, rather than standing waves. All that remains of the
Big Bang today is the resonance echos of that singular event, like the
waves in a pond after a stone is thrown in.

The particles from that creation interact in one of two ways: either
they collide with each other randomly and unpredictably, then move on
for an unpredictable interval till the next collision, or they fall
into a periodic resonant relationship, from protons and electrons that
merge into neutrons, forming a larger standing wave resonance, to
electron orbitals in periodic patterns around the atomic nucleus, to
atoms that merge into molecules with their own characteristic larger
resonances, to agglomerations of particles from dust grains to
snowballs to asteroids to planets to stars, which admittedly are not so
resonant, but more irregular.

A planet in orbit around a sun is another periodic resonance, like a
pendulum swinging in circles instead of back and forth, with a
continuous range of elliptical rotations in between. The resonance of
planetary orbits is seen most clearly during their formation from the
planetary disk, with countless rings and spokes, like those now seen in
the rings of Saturn, that eventually condense into near-circular orbits
spaced at harmonic intervals due to resonance effects between planets
at different orbital radii. Everything on earth that is regular and
predictable, from the daily rotation of day and night, to the seasonal
variation, to the annual cycle, to the cycle of ice ages, is again a
resonance phenomenon. All else is chaotic and random and unpredictable.


Ok, I'll admit I'm taking it a bit too far. It is perhaps an
over-generalization, there are other patterns which are not exactly
resonance, for example the periodic pattern of a DNA molecule is not
itself a resonance effect, even though its component atoms and
molecules are each tiny resonances. But there is a kernel of truth
there, that suggests that there is something truly magical and
creational about the principle of resonance, it is the only physical
principle that postpones the steady advance of entropy, and
spontaneously creates periodic order out of chaotic disorder.

>> I have proposed ... it is the resonance principle of our brains
>> that explains our special affinity to music

> It seems more likely to me that various things in nature that
> have bearing on survival also produce sounds (lions roar, rumble
> of rocks falling, buzz of honey bees, baby's cry). Evolution has
> selected us to have some programmed responses (mental states/feeling)
> to sounds. Music, as all sound, stimulates those same circuits elliciting
> a mixture of the associated states/feelings.

Well think about the phenomenon of *consonance*, i.e. which notes sound
good with which other notes. When the frequencies of notes f1 & f2 are
related by harmonic intervals (octaves, fifths, thirds,...) then they
are perceived to be consonant, they sound good together. There is
nothing in nature that has those relations except for manifestations of
resonance. Then think of periodicity--when notes form periodic
patterns, not just simple alternations CGCGCGCG..., but compound
patterns, CEGECEGE..., CEEGEECEEGEE, and compound hierarchical
patterns, CECEGEGEADADGEGE, with compound hierarchies of compound
hierarchies in endless symmetrical and periodic patterns, stepping on
harmonically related frequencies, THOSE are the melodies that we find
aesthetically appealing, and yet nothing in nature has those kinds of
patterns except for harmonic resonances of various sorts. I claim that
this is no accident, but a manifestation of the fact that resonance is
the principle of pattern formation and detection in the brain.

Take a look at this brief cartoon presentation of the magic of harmonic
resonance and how it operates in biology and in the brain.

http://cns-alumni.bu.edu/~slehar/HRez/HRez.html

(this is work in progress, to be extended when I have the time)

Steve Lehar

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Relevant Pages

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