In Search of Zora

Ran across this Wired article, "5 Things Google Still Needs to Fix in Android" via Twitter.  Skimming through, I quickly lost count of the number of comment/critiques along the lines of: "make everything the same", "don't let users...", "prevent apps from..."

This is timely reminder for me as to why certain colleagues favor Apple software.

It's also stark reminder for me as to why I do not.

Thanks for the Memories

While nobody knows quite how human memory works on a biological level, it's clear that our memory function is responsible for much more than just our ability to recognize people, places, and things.  For example:

1. Lists.  Of course our memory allows us to keep track of multiple things, but then, so does written language.  This basic type of memory function makes computers invaluable, but it's not unique to us.
2. Associations.  For most people a single word calls to mind dozens of specific memories (directly and indirectly related) that include specific places, people, events, sequences of events, etc.  A single word (in conjunction with its associations) can be all that's needed to get someone chatting for hours on end.
3. Prediction.  Without access to our uniquely adapted memory structure, we wouldn't be able to predict events beyond the present moment.  But it turns out, this ability to predict has intense consequences -- in a good way...

In fact, much like dreams, the act of prediction is really the combination of past memories with alterations to their original order or even their content. 

Enter the power of human imagination.  

Clearly, prediction allows us to plan the future.  But most importantly to my work, the ability to predict brings with it the power to attribute meaning to events as they change (or are changed) over time.  Again, I find myself amazed at the synergy between these observations and Clio's music analysis algorithms.  

Effective musical understanding begins and ends with the ability to remember and predict.

iRevolution

I was foolishly thinking of polluting the web with yet another short post about the idiocy of the iPad craze until Steve Winkler pointed me to this little gem:

http://is.gd/bk2AG

For the impatient:

...I see the iPad as a Bizarro Trojan Horse. Instead of importing soldiers into the kingdom to break down its walls, in this horse, we, the people, are stuffed inside and wheeled into the old walls; the gate is shut and we’re welcomed back into the kingdom of controlling media that we left almost a generation ago.

But then, I need to remember that people actually went nuts for the iPod -- the single worst thing to happen to audio in the last 100 years.  

Once again Grandpa Grumpy Greg shakes his fist in the air, and shouts, "Damn fool lemmings!"

Lux Bardus

While I think I understand why this happens, I don't at all understand the appeal.  In fact, it seems to miss out on everything that's wonderful about music making...

...by turning what should be a communally fortifying experience into a low-res, digitally isolated game of cheap trickery.

"Now tell us how you really feel..."  ;-)

You Know What I Meant

Just ran across this elegant description of Google's context-awareness from Steven Levy:

"A rock is a rock. It's also a stone, and it could be a boulder. Spell it 'rokc' and it's still a rock. But put 'little' in front of it and it's the capital of Arkansas. Which is not an ark. Unless Noah is around."

Turns out, this a decent encapsulation of how Clio's algorithms operate during analysis. But abstract languages (like music) are simultaneously constructivist and self-referential in nature.  

With which does the bulk of identity and meaning lie?

And how does this play out on a large scale?  

Only time (and extensive experimentation with Clio) will tell...