Also, I’m not saying that there is not infinite gradation of sounds or instrumentation, but there is a limit to the distinctness of sounds or instrumentation. Do you believe there are infinite distinct sounds or instruments possible?
This whole idea that you need “infinite variation”, or rather arbitrarily large variation, if artistic endeavors are to be worthwhile in the near term is just weird to me. A big enough space is plenty enough to keep us all busy for the foreseeable future, and this isn’t even accounting for the fact that art is in no small part about gaining a thorough understanding of such creative possibilities, as opposed to developing new ‘creations’ persay. After all, there’s already more music in the world than one could feasibly listen to in a lifetime!
Sure, I didn’t mean to imply that art is just about new creations. There are many other values to art and creativity of course. Also, I agree that we are fortunate to have an abundance of music available. So don’t take what I’m saying as a criticism of creativity or art, or not appreciating the value of them apart from newness. I’m more examining this topic in the interest of understanding human progress and discovery in general.
I agree that this idea is difficult to prove as of now, which is why I’m doing my best to explain my thought process as to what seems evident to me, and I’m appreciating the objections that others are raising. But if we get to the year 2200 and the majority of people still listen to music primarily from 1500-2050 (or whatever), then that does say something about our reality and human progress/discovery. It also is interesting to me that people intuitively view creativity as something open-ended and undefined (at least I did until a few years ago), when perhaps there is something objective and defined and limited about human discovery (which I now believe).
This whole idea that you need “infinite variation”, or rather arbitrarily large variation, if artistic endeavors are to be worthwhile in the near term is just weird to me. A big enough space is plenty enough to keep us all busy for the foreseeable future, and this isn’t even accounting for the fact that art is in no small part about gaining a thorough understanding of such creative possibilities, as opposed to developing new ‘creations’ persay. After all, there’s already more music in the world than one could feasibly listen to in a lifetime!
This is very true.
Sure, I didn’t mean to imply that art is just about new creations. There are many other values to art and creativity of course. Also, I agree that we are fortunate to have an abundance of music available. So don’t take what I’m saying as a criticism of creativity or art, or not appreciating the value of them apart from newness. I’m more examining this topic in the interest of understanding human progress and discovery in general.
I agree that this idea is difficult to prove as of now, which is why I’m doing my best to explain my thought process as to what seems evident to me, and I’m appreciating the objections that others are raising. But if we get to the year 2200 and the majority of people still listen to music primarily from 1500-2050 (or whatever), then that does say something about our reality and human progress/discovery. It also is interesting to me that people intuitively view creativity as something open-ended and undefined (at least I did until a few years ago), when perhaps there is something objective and defined and limited about human discovery (which I now believe).