[microsound] Piano Paradox

[Adam Davis]

Written with the help of my brother Philip Davis, an astrophysicist, I
wanted to share this with you all here at .microsound. Constructive feedback
would be highly appreciated:

Imagine a piano. The length of one string of this piano, in whatever unit or
order of magnitude, is equal to the sum total of all the numbers that
comprise the aleph-0 set. Similarly, the next string is, in whatever
measurement, equal in length to the sum total of the figures that make the
aleph-1 set. The string after that, aleph-2, and so on. When the piano is
played, will the strings sound different pitches, if at all? How could the
tension of the strings be kept if the ends could not be reached? Will there
even be other ends for the keys, hammers and other mechanisms to situate? If
the piano has an infinite amount of keys with an infinite amount of
respective strings, are a highest starting note, aleph-0, even possible?
Could the rhythms of the recursions and infinite pro/regressions highlighted
by these questions be interpreted and played to on this piano!?

~

Bonus paradox:

If you limit yourself by being obsessed with a subject, a field, an interest
no matter how interdisciplinary, does this still apply if that interest is
infinity?

Infinite obsessions; an obsession with infinity. The infinities within the
coins, the mushrooms, the windmills...the pylons.

---------------

Best wishes,
Adam
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