Why do we love music?

The interview was not detailed, but the implication was basically "yes".

The reporter was, in real time, using thought alone to change the tempo and mood of the piano music that the program was playing. I forget the name of the university's department, but it seemed that these guys are doing some interesting research.

Oh, yes, the reporter mentioned department of something, something and neuroscience.

I used to think that *true* AI was a load of hookum - I should point out that I used to be a software engineer, so I'm not saying that out of ignorance - but I'm not so sure anymore. There was a report in the papers a couple of days ago about a simple brain of 25,000 neural cells grown from rat cells learning to fly an F-22 flight simulator it was hooked up to:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12 /05/wbrain05.xml

I've always thought that sensory perception is an integral and essential part of intelligence, i.e. it would be impossible to build an intelligent machine without it having both sensory perception and manipulatory abilities.

OK, the 'brain' was only keeping the aircraft steady in level flight, but the way technology is advancing, perhaps in a few hundred years what seems impossible today will be possible. Just like what has happened in the past.

What would music be like if composers could generate it directly out of their heads?

Would musicianship eventually disappear as no one would have to learn to play an instrument?

What if a device could read your mental state and spontaneously generate the perfect suitable accompaniment?

Will everyone be trading personally generated compositions rather than selecting from the available professional recording artists?

selling_echoes wrote: I thought I'd have my turn at this, even though I'm pretty late. Because music is everything your irises cannot perceive. Ever think about the fact that for a blind person, everything becomes music? I see it this way... music is an art, but it is also a generator of foreign feelings. During songs like Mood For A Day (Yes) and Horizon's (Genesis) there are certain emotions running through me that I cannot name, and I love that feeling. Music is the most powerful, most universal, most personal form of art that I know. It is an escape, another parallel reality. I don't know, when I listen to a song I particularly love the song takes me away completely, wraps me in the cascade. It brings people together, it even brings a single person together into one emotion, one song, one silence. I guess I love music because it is timeless. My music timeline : Britney + BSB --> NSYNC + O-Town --> Sum 41 + Simple Plan + Good Charlotte  --> Nirvana + Red Hot Chili Peppers --> Coldplay --> Pink Floyd + Genesis.

Very well said. Looking forward to what comes after the next "-->"

why do I like music so much?Because I can actually penetrate into it.

Proghead wrote: Sheep

Nah, it's Cert who likes the sheep.Dig up his post