Is Music Inherently Digital?

Music is by default analog. Or is it? What is the most important thing in music? Isn't it the tempo? Tempo is simply a clock, and that is the core of digital! But the instruments that play are analog, you say. That might be more so for the violin or the cello, but the piano has discrete notes that the player can use, unlike the strings instruments where the player can slide his fingers between notes giving this analog feel. If you go down into the basic notes you will get into the world of digital, which I believe is the nature of all things. Any instrument can be digitized, and that is exactly what the musical synthesizer does. In the micro world, there is no such thing as continuous time, distance or energy. Everything is quantized. Have you heard of the uncertainty principle? It states that position and velocity cannot be simulataneously measured. If you try to determine the position, you affect the particle's speed, and vice versa. Same goes for energy and time, they cannot be determined simulataneously. So inherently musical energy that we hear is quantized if time is to be continuous, and vice versa. So it is either the notes' energies are quantized or the time itself is, or both are to varying degrees. In either case, deep down in the microworld, music then must be digital.
Today music is still played with analog instruments, especially classical music. Players still perform according to the sheet music that the great composers of the previous few centuries wrote. The symphonies are still conducted in real time by the maestro of the philharmonic orchestra. But that does not mean that the same music could not be reproduced digitally. It certainly could. You could have a software program read the sheet music and play it using different instruments whose sounds are synthesized with high fidelity. You could then generate a MIDI file that could be played by the computer. You could record track on top of another track and create a vast symphonic effect, and most of all you could do all that alone, without the need for a whole orchestra.
Still nothing beats the sound of the various instruments performing together in the symphony hall, which is inarguably analog. So it is not a question of is music digital or analog, but it is a question of which is better. What do you think?

The future of mobile phone

First came the FM based mobile phone from Motorola, then came Qualcomm's CDMA based mobile phone which improved the quality of the signal. Then there came G2 technology with various form and shape phones from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung etc. Then while G3 phones were in the making, a transitionary state called G2.5 emerged and the market was flooded with phones that could do email, interact with the internet and take photos. Now the real G3 phones are starting to emerge from Nokia. These new phones will deliver video, and will allow you to purchase songs online in addition to other internet services. Sprint Nextel is already offering songs for sale directly online for $1.99 a song, compared to Apple's iTune $0.99 price per song. The increase in the price is worth it for those who want to get their songs immediately wherever they go.
It does not stop here, because now there is talk about G4 phones targetting 2010, that are supposed to make you even more connected wherever you are. However, based on the delays in G3, it is expected that G4 won't come to the market until much later than 2010.
I am seeing that there a merger between PDA and phone, as phones are having more PDA functions integrated into them, while PDA's are adding modem and phone functions too, which makes the distinction between the two devices become more and more blurry. I wonder, are they going to be completely blended in the future, or are we still going to see distinct PDA and phone devices?
I always felt I did not need a connected PDA, i.e PDA/phone. I was happy with the applications I had on my PDA while reading material from the internet offline. I still don't see a need to be connected, but who knows, maybe if the connection fee goes down it will be worth getting connected. It certainly is a convenience which is just too costly now. But as the price goes down, who will not want to have a PDA/phone rather than just a PDA? What do you think?

Obsolescense

I keep worrying about obsolescence issues that threaten to deprive us of what we have today. Think of all the data that we are amassing from pictures, to videos to word documents to excel spreadsheets to pdf files. What will happen to all this data decades from now if the jpg compression format would no longer be there, or if Adobe changed its pdf format, or Microsoft ceased to exist? We will no longer have access to our data. Is that scary or what?
Our ancient ancestors left indelible traces behind them using indestructible monoliths and colossal granite structures. We can still read the hieroglyphic scripts on their walls today. Funny calling them scripts! I wonder how long will our JavaScripts be readable for?
My grandmother had a shoebox full of old sepia toned pictures. Those pictures still exist today, some are almost hundred years old. I wonder how long will the thousands of digital photos I am taking these days will last. I don't even bother backing up my hard drive. What if I lose all that?
I know what I am going to do. I am going to sift through my many gigs of pictures that I took, then pick the best few ones and print them at Sam's Club. This way I can keep them in a shoe box so that my grand children might get a chance to see them.
As for the other data, I don't know how I am going to prolong their existence. I feel worried that all the digital data I have is going to be lost some day. How do I preserve all my programs and documents? I hardly make hardcopies anymore as I depend only on the files I have saved on my hard drive. The most I usually do is copy the files to a flash memory or a CD. Floppies don't exist anymore, so will the CD's have a better luck? Are DVD's still going to be around twenty years from now?
The nagging question is how can I leave documents that could still be read two or three generations from now? Shall I print them on paper? Publish them on microfische?
I wish I could etch my data on a huge monolith carved out of granite. I bet you that would stand the test of time for a while, unless a nuclear war erupts. Even then, I think the monolith is going to have a much better chance of surviving than any of the electronic data saved in the forms we know today. What do you think?

Initial Posting

This is my blog site that I will try to keep up-to-date as much as I can. There will be times when I will not be able to update it frequently but I promise that I will do my best.