Hi Rick,
I was so curious as to what his response would be to your response that I
emailed him. This is what he said. Now I am curious to your response.
Hi, Erin.
Yes -- good question. What I meant by my statement was that the sound as a
phenomenon (not just as air waves) exists even without a listener. I do not
think that a sound happens only at the eardrum! I feel the same way about
light: I believe that light has colors before it actually hits the retina.
This point of view is not without difficulties, though: We know that if you
are moving away from or towards a sound, its wavelength changes -- so which
sound-phenomenon is tied to that air wave? I think all sound ("white sound").
This is where the listener comes in: The listener only hears one particular
wavelength out of all of them, based on his relative speed to the air wave as
well as the speed of the air wave at zero relative speed. The tree falling
in the forest actually makes a much greater crash than any one particular
person could ever hear!
It sounds complicated, I know. It is similar to Spinoza's idea of
double-aspectism: Sure, we can measure wave lengths -- but it is the quality
of the sound (or light) that is fundamental, that define the sound. The
measured wavelength is an extra characteristic of the sound.
Best wishes,
George Boeree
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