What if music was unique to planet Earth?

reply to post by TheWetCoast


What do you consider music to be? For example, would a light show without sound fit your definition of music? Although sound seems fundamentally different than light it does consist of quasiparticles called phonons:

en.wikipedia.org...

Can somebody with color synesthesia enjoy music? Or perhaps they enjoy it on a much deeper level.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the definition of music. I suspect we have something unique as a species to offer this Universe. Perhaps it is music.

Nice thread. S&F.

Edit: Hmm I couldn't flag the thread, but I did give you a star. The area to the right of the flag is blacked out. Is that normal?
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by TheWetCoast
If intelligent life is/has visited our planet the question is "why?".

I guess a lot of us just don't get what the "music" part of the thought experiment has much, if anything, to do with the "why" part of a theorized alien visitation.

Most already realize that, should they exist, they could be so different from us in every way--biologically, physiologically, psychologically, etc--that we might not even be able to communicate with, or even comprehend, one another. Or they might be "us."

It kind of seems like: Do Aliens have navels? If so do they contemplate them?

I would like to think that all life enjoys music to a certain extent. Even bullfrogs sing, for example. Regardless of mating ritual and purposes I believe that if there are EBEs, they would probably have music as well. I think if you look around our planet, you could make an educated guess about it anyway. So many different species of animals and mammals use their own form of song for mating and such, it just would make sense to me that even elsewhere in the universe there is music. IMO anyway...and if they don't, they are seriously missing out!!

reply to post by The GUT


You just like female aliens :

The real question is:

If you were being serenaded by an alien would you know it?

Originally posted by SLAYER69

You just like female aliens :

Ever heard of Aura Rhanes, Slay?

Hot alien-babe home-wrecker!

Mr Bethurum himself jokingly remarked in his many public lectures that his second wife had divorced him in 1955 mainly due to jealousy of Captain Rhanes. He later married a third time, with the wedding taking place at one of Mr George Van Tassel's popular yearly Giant Rock Spacecraft Conventions.
en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by TheWetCoast
This is a theory that I heard/read quite a few years ago. I find this theory to be a very useful thought experiment at the very least.The theory was: Humanity was the only species to use sound for the sole purpose of enjoyment(music) and that a few/many highly advanced civilizations have decided to visit our planet to study the concept. Any thoughts/ideas?

We may be the only guys in the Milky Way who don't understand the potential of music being an advanced and convenient way to communicate. The aliens tried to teach us a language based on music,
www.shareintl.org...
but to no avail. We decided to stick with binary coding instead (the Arecibo message), but no one out there is using this outdated way. That's why for the guys at SETI, the universe remains deaf and mute.

Originally posted by Just Chris
I very much doubt music is unique to planet earth. It just doesn't make logical sense.

Of course, it does make illogical sense though.

I read sounds were a spectrum of light. So I guess for at least one specie, sounds would be used as "light", like some animals use it for echolocation, and their "music" festivals could be for us, only a big blinding light show.

Maybe pulsars are cosmic nightclubs?...

Well, considering that sound is vibration and vibration being the foundation of all creation, I believe music exists everywhere in the multi-verse. I also believe these aliens (I lean more towards Interdimensional beings than Extraterrestrial) perceive music through multiple higher senses, so not only do they hear and feel the music they see it also as a multi colored waves of vibration as it's being played or created. I can only imagine how else they capture music and create it via their super-advanced senses for whatever purposes. I'm convinced throughout my past experiences that music is not only for the sake of "pleasure" but also very healing combined with visualization.

We live in a society that is governed by our lower senses( pleasure) and higher senses become docile and dormant when not used overtime. We too can perceive music with our higher senses, but each and everyday we are bombarded by stimuli to drag us down to our lower centers. Thanks for the thread, had a pleasure reading your theory on sound and this was my 2 c.

Aliens have music too. Where do you think dubstep came from?

reply to post by compressedFusion

I think sound(s) would be the key component to music with lights etc. used to add to the overall experience. Music also has an emotional element that is important when trying to define what music is.

Okay, I admit that it is a more interesting thought experiment than I initially reckoned. Synesthesia and music theory/speculations mixed with Aliens is kind of cool.

Carry on, dudes. I'm listening. And thinking. Flagged.

We might be the only civilization that hears music the way we do. Who knows, its a cool idea, but I believe that sound is everywhere. And if there is sound most likely animals and other species have evolved to hear this, and use it

"What if music was unique to planet Earth?"

or... alternatively....

"Imagine if everything in the universe is an evolving system of self-aware music."
~ Steve Wilmer

Originally posted by TheWetCoast
This is a theory that I heard/read quite a few years ago. I find this theory to be a very useful thought experiment at the very least.The theory was: Humanity was the only species to use sound for the sole purpose of enjoyment(music) and that a few/many highly advanced civilizations have decided to visit our planet to study the concept. Any thoughts/ideas?

That is SO bloody weird!

I was thinking the exact same thing to myself only today, the exact same thing!

Was even going to make a thread on the question too...blimey, that's amazing.

I was thinking if ET species did not have music, or at least any deliberately created music, the would most probably be very interested in our cultures and our affinity with music..almost every culture on Earth from the most sohisticated cities to the humblest huts of Amazonian Bush dwellers makes some form of music.

Apart from the interesting cultural learning they would gain, they would also realise something else about us before they'd even seen us...that we understand maths.

Music is math, quite complex math made into an auditory format...if i were an ET, i'd be certainly interested in studying this form of auditory math our species has developed.

I find it very strange that you believe that the sole purpose of music is mere enjoyment. Music, is a communication medium, a treatment, a therapy for its creators and for its listeners. It can be used to bring peoples emotions, positive, and negative, right up to the surface of thier psyches.

It could be said that music is in fact one of the most effective communication methods known to man, because beautiful music transcends language barriers very well. An example, I cannot speak Italian, and its been long enough since I spoke any German that I cannot remember a bloody thing of it. However, I can listen to operas and feel the emotions which the composer intended for people to feel.

Music therefore is not mere art, and since it serves a greater purpose, than to be merely appreciated, it is quite a bit less likely to be a totally uniquely Earth based phenomenon.

Interesting question. As a long time musician and former music teacher, I thought I'd pass this along.

We used to think the drum was the worlds oldest instrument. But, in most circles these days...it is considered to be the human voice.

I'm jumping here...but in anticipation of some KIND of voice on some other planet in some other universe....Im presupposing that would count?

reply to post by TheWetCoast


Damned I knew it!
They are all Beliebers.

Originally posted by TheWetCoast

Originally posted by aoxomoxoa
music is sound and vibration- universal constants. It would naturally exist everywhere

But would another intelligent species use it as a form of entertainment?

Did Jimi Hendrix use it for entertainment?

He created a whole 'nother religion with his sounds and vibrations...
so of course other intelligent species use it as a form of entertainment... to them it's a way of communication, worship, and sex

see?