As much as a human.
What do you think?
are interpretations of music's grasp on emotion so rare, that the only beings that would understand it would have to have a brain rigged up like a humans?
Is it selfish to think in such way?
What if extraterrestrials found no use of music for intellectual benefit... and found it ridiculous that humans waste soo much time being enthralled by rhythms...
Ummm... they might?!
The tree of liberty is hungry. Let's feed it well in the next election.
It's been cited that otherworldly organisms wouldn't be built like us.
Us = Earth's children.
Mammals, fish, reptiles, birds, etc.
Different conditions, different evolutions.
Music is appealing, because it's aesthetically pleasing to hear, especially when it is played at the Major Chords.
An alien's mind wouldn't be pleased by the sound of a repetitive rhythm and melody.
At least, not ours.
It's an interesting theory. Do you ever chills when you listen to music? Turns out chickens get them too, so perhaps aliens can appreciate music as well.
That is founded on the assumption that extraterrestrials are capable of detecting oscillations in gasses and interpreting the frequency and the pressure of the oscillation.
A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
-- Stephen Crane
With the obvious hypothetical that if aliens could hear music...Quote by: Angry Citizen
Or devise some way of translating music into a form they could perceive. Remember, we can't hear kilohertz radio waves but that doesn't stop us.
I would not be surprised at all if they have some kind of art and the capacity to enjoy rhythm, but I would be very surprised if they could pick up on the emotions and intended feeling of our music.
The more you complain, the less I care about your problems.
I do not think that aliens are likely to be as vastly different from us as some here suggest. I would bet that another intelligent species like ours will share many traits with us, including cultural similarities.
Why? Man, you know, you raise a good point regarding cultural similarities. Imagine if extraterrestrials had a Jesus. That would sure put a dent in atheism.
A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
-- Stephen Crane
This brings up the entire new argument of whether alien Jesus Christ would have a beard?
I believe the obvious answer is yes.
And I would not be at all surprised if aliens also took pleasure when listening to music, as we do.
"I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It's hitting below the intellect."
- Oscar Wilde
On the contrary, it would put a dent in theism. After all, isn't Jesus the only one? It will just reinforce anthropologist's ideas about society and culture.
It's because of many things that I know about biology that lead me to think this. Honestly, I find it hard to think about simply because it's hard to take in all the info at once.
As far as cultural similarities go, I wouldnt necessarily count the Christian religion as one of them. Though a form of religion may be more likely. I cant give any good answer to this one because I dont know much at all about how religion came about in our species.
However, there are certain social traits that were necessary for us to possess first to even be able to evolve many of the characteristics of our brains that allowed for further social developement and vice versa. For instance, we know from studying all sorts of social animals and non social animals that certain characteristics such as impulse control and the ability to suppress emotions greatly hinder or further social interaction. Thus I think that the social structure, refering to what gives rise to it in the first place, is likely to be very similar to ours. Because of this underlying similarity I think that aspects of their culture at large will likely share some elements with ours as well.
Furthermore these things are also deeply connected to types of food we ate and how much nutrition our bodies needed to support our brains. I doubt that an intelligent alien species will not atleast be omniverous as we are. That is unless they are mechanical. But then that begs the question as to who created them.
There is much much more involved with this idea than these few things mentioned here, but Im not prepared to actually defend this hypothesis atm. Id have to pull out some text books to find alot of the things that might support this idea.
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