Friday, December 19, 2008

Dirk Gently fishes

If you have read Douglas Adams' wonderful book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, you may remember the protagonist Richard MacDuff's theory that the forms and movements of nature could be translated into music by a computer. Well, lo and behold, somebody has done it.

5 comments:

Paul Kierstead said...

And what is this "If" you speak of? How could you doubt such a thing?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I have heard rumors that some people have not read this important book. I'm still hoping they're unfounded.

Alex said...

I just gave away my spare copy of this and HHGTTG. It was sad, but I need the shelf space.

I remember turning on TV one day and being confronted by a being who ccould only be the electric monk, and lo it was.

I still offer people cream or milk and then offer them one lump or two, before offering the sugar.

Thing is, how many of us have read Last Chance to See, and Spaceship Titanic, or Young Zaphod (as it appears in the later compendium).

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I've read Spaceship Titanic (by Terry Jones). Not bad, but not Adams.

"Young Zaphod Plays it Safe" is included in the Salmon of Doubt, which means I've read it.

Anonymous said...

"... theory that the forms and movements of nature could be translated into music ..."

Do you know "Kymatics"? This is just the contrary: Forms and structure built out of sound and music.

Maybe you remember "Chladnic sound figures" from physics at school. Contemporarily it is investigated e.g. by Mr. Jenny and by Mr. Lauterwasser. See (in german only) www.wasserklangbilder.de/.

Furthermore there is the work of Joachim-Ernst Berendt (well known in the world of Jazz, see http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim-Ernst_Berendt), e.g. his book "Nada Brahma - The World is Sound" about the world being vibration in many forms ...

Or you may have also heard about the work of Hans Cousto about "Harmonical Research" ...

A lot of very interesting connections about the inner coherence of the universe we are living in, and about everybody as a human being.

So, you may say life IS music and music IS life ...