TBoI I: The Reach Of Explanations

Back to the Beginning of David Deutch's 'The Beginning of Infinity' (TBoF) (page #'s are hardcover.. I don't know if there is another edition yet)

p. 3

"One of the most remarkable things about science is the contrast between the enormous reach and power of our best theories and the precarious, local means by which we create them."

"Scientific theories are explanations: assertions about what is out there and how it behaves."

I think we can improve on this definition of explanation. I often find the clarity lacking a bit. Even where he supplies end of chapter definitions, they are often vague (and the 'Meanings of TBOF...' sections can be downright silly). One my of critiques of the book in general is it doesn't seem to know who its audience is... it tries to be part formal philosophical treatise and part pop-sci.

p 6.

"Scientific explanations are about reality, most of which does not consist of anyone's experiences."

p. 7

"Discovering a new explanation is inherently an act of creativity."

p. 8

"...the real key to science is that our explanatory  theories ... can be improved, through conjecture, criticism, and testing."

Directly from Popper, and pretty hard to refute (ahem).

p. 10

"All observations arre, as Popper put it, theory-laden"

The remainder of the paragraph rather stretches what we would call 'theory' to include even basic sensory processing and modeling... but it's a valid point nonetheless.

p. 13

"What was needed for the sustained, rapid growth of knowledge was a tradition of criticism."

p. 22

"If an explanation could easily explain anything... than it actually explains nothing."

"In general, when theories are easily variable... experimental testing is almost useless for correcting these errors. I call such theories bad explanations."

"The quest for good explanations is... the basic regulating principle not only for science, but of the Enlightenment... and it implies all those other conditions for scientific progress."

p. 25

"We do not test every testable theory, but only the few we find are good explanations."

Well, he puts forward his idea of a good explanation, a key part of which is that it is difficult to vary, as more important than the concept of testability or falsifiability, but being hard to vary is exactly the property that makes a theory falsifiable, so it amounts to the same thing.

It seems his use of explanation is largely interchangeable with the scientific use of the word theory (sometimes he uses the term explanatory theories), but he is probably smart to prefer the former for greater specificity.

Edit: just came across the same phrase in Popper: "Assume that we have deliberately made it our task to line in this unknown world... and to explain it... with the help of laws and explanatory theories."

p. 26

"The best explanations are the ones that are most constrained by existing knowledge... including other good explanations"

p. 28

"The reach of explanations is... the ability to solve problems beyond those that they were created to solve... it it determined by the content of the explanation itself"

p. 30

"if you find an explanation anywhere in the universe, you know that there must have been an intelligent being."

I don't find much to debate in this chapter; he introduces some lingo and sets the stage. I can't argue with the Popperian epistemology. One thing I noted from the start is DD doesn't quite seem to know who is audience is. It seems part formal treatise on the philosophy of science, part pop-sci. He includes end of chapter definitions, but they are often pretty vague, which kind of defeats the purpose of a definition. And the 'Meanings of...' sections are usually pretty silly.

I can't wait 'til we get to Hilbert's Hotel :D But, I am finding a re-read valuable;

TBP

Now reading: Sean Carroll, The Big Picture

p. 10

"The truth is that the ground has disappeared beneath us, and we are just beginning to work up the courage to look down."

p. 15, chapter 2:

Good lord, straight to Star Trek transporter malfunctions.

Always

"I suspect that somebody somewhere is always playing "Tiger Rag" or "Basin Streen Blues."

"Jazz has always been more capable of digesting new musical ingrediants than other genres."

"I recently heard of an eleven-year-old who played Giant Steps like it was Chopsticks."

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Wow, I didn't know my keyboard could do that.

Unity

FDtD p. 466

"...if one asks why in the face of such divisions, one speaks of unity at all, the answer for all periods is that the ultimate unifying force of an age is its predicaments: the urgent demands, the obstacles to social peace or progress, the need for new art that Stendhal pointed out--things that alert minds cannot ignore: every living thinker or artist works to fulfil these calls or deny them in some way."

Perhaps the best sentence I've ever read with two colons, not to mention a --.

Duke

p. 167

"Here I am fifty years later, still getting cats to come out of bed, so that I can listen to them."

p. 168

"If you took the time to study the construction of fifty or so of Ellington's tracks... you would see over and over the composer's unique skill in conveying a sense of uninhinited party on the surface level but underpinning it with sober calculation in the music's inner workings."

p. 170 

"Goodman was a perfectionist who was rarely pleased with the musicians he hired, and they burnt out on his intensity, many leaving the band after only a short stint. Ellington's orchestra thrived, in contrast, because the boss didn't demand perfection, and instead built everything in the ensemble's repertoire on the demonstrated strengths of hsi personnel."

Intentionality

p. 15

"When a group is working together effectively, the individual musicians don't need to play so many notes... when the band's rhythmic cohesion is floundering, each individual in the group is tempted to overplay... lots of activity is no substitute for skilled cohesion."

p. 25

"Phrases move effortlessly from one type of subdivision of the beat into another. In my own musical education, the moment of success came when I found I could play rhythmic patterns in the music that I could no longer analyze in real time."

p. 26

"Above all, I like to hear a clear sense of intentionality in a musician's phrasing... After I have heard a phrase played with intentionality, I feel as if it is absolutely the only combination of notes that would have fit the circumstances."

"Dizzy Gillespie once claimed that the first thing that came to his mind when improvising was the rhythmic structure of the line... lesser horn players seem to end their phrases when they run out of breath."

p. 27

"it isn't a matter of loudness or energy, but rather a sense of clear intention and personal agency embodied in the melodic lines."

"(When stealing from other players... choose a different instrument from your own, and people won't notice the theft)"

p. 28

"The best way to open up your ears to phrasing is by listening to the top tier jazz vocalists."

Dynamics

p. 38

"musicians often find it difficult to agree on a change from loud to soft, or vice versa, unless they are listening closely to each other and are intimately in sync, the result is often long stretches without much dynamic variation."

p. 39

"Jazz is a hot art form. It thrives on intensity... as a result, louder is almost always the easier option on the bandstand, especially for inexperienced performers."

"Audiences burn out on unrelenting volume"

https://youtu.be/6BD8-aYrKew

p. 43

"I have so much faith in this essential translucency of music that I trust the songs more than biographical facts."

p. 48

"When one of his band members succeeded in playing an especially exciting solo that generated lots of applause from the audience, Mingus would yell at him: "Don't do that again!""

p. 49

"Jazz... is for those who want to be in attendance when the miracle happens."