DOCSLIB.ORG

Osiris 28 Music Sound and Th

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Osiris 28 Music Sound and Th Music, Sound, and the Laboratory from 1750 to 1980 by Alexandra Hui,* Julia Kursell,† and Myles W. Jackson‡ Music and science have a long common history dating back to the ancient Greeks. This shared history became uncoupled some time in the late nineteenth century, as music ceased to be the most important source of sound that could be subjected to investigation. Knowledge of sound always relies on some form of medium—that is, a way to store, transmit, transform, manipulate, and encode or decode sound. Until the second half of the nineteenth century, the techniques and practices of producing, describing, and reproducing sounds had been the most developed in music, and sci- entists, engineers, and musicians were engaged in similar, reciprocal projects. Music remained privileged as an object of acoustic investigation, driven in part by the bour- geois culture of music that fl ourished during the nineteenth century, especially in central Europe, and created a public of listeners and producers of musical sounds. Yet, at the same time, scientists and engineers broadened the scope of investigation beyond music, to sound, with new mathematical tools, new fi elds of experimental inquiry, and eventually new media technologies, most often located in laboratories. Music continued to frame the interaction among scientists, engineers, and musicians, and, though perhaps less immediately apparent, this reciprocal engagement has con- tinued, over time becoming more intricate, intriguing, and historically informative. Our volume illuminates the ongoing reciprocal relationship between scientifi c in- vestigation, on one hand, and music and sound, on the other. We offer a series of his- torically and locally specifi ed case studies, mostly between 1750 and 1980, devoted to the entanglement of music, sound, and the laboratory. The authors approach the topic from a variety of perspectives: history of science and technology, music history, science studies, and media studies. Starting in the 1980s, Anglo- American histo- ries of science drew upon new trends being generated in the social sciences with a view to avoiding earlier distinctions between the context and content of the scien- tifi c enterprise. Any discipline or fi eld that wants to tackle the role of sound must refl ect on the media through which sound propagates. Historians, in particular, have explored in recent years the multiple ways in which we can glean information about sensory experiences in the past.1 Although the project to fi nd out how people lived * Department of History, Mississippi State University, Box H, Mississippi State, MS 39762; ahui@ history.msstate .edu. † Capaciteitsgroep muziekwetenschap, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16, 1012 CP Amsterdam, Netherlands; [email protected]. ‡ NYU- Gallatin, 1 Washington Place, Room 405, New York, NY 10003; myles.jackson@nyu .edu. 1 See, e.g., Mark M. Smith, Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History (Berkeley, Calif., 2008). © 2013 by The History of Science Society. All rights reserved. 0369-7827/11/2013-0001$10.00 OSIRIS 2013, 28 : 1–11 1 This content downloaded from 147.213.131.2 on Tue, 11 Nov 2014 08:06:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2 ALEXANDRA HUI, JULIA KURSELL, AND MYLES W. JACKSON in different historical contexts is as exciting as it is methodologically diffi cult, the history of sound is not alone in its quest for uncovering sounds of earlier periods. Another discipline engaged in this quest, which until fairly recently was conspicuous in its absence from the history of science and science studies, is media studies.2 As Bernhard Siegert’s contribution to this volume suggests, media studies scholars are interested in studying the question of how scientifi c instruments can turn into media. A history of science that seeks insights into the concepts of sound that prevailed his- torically must include media history. We hope this volume provides an introduction to media scholars’ use of concepts and methods relevant to the history of science, which can enhance our understanding of the scientifi c enterprise and its growth. In the study of vision the interplay between questions of mediation and scientifi c inquiry has proven less problematic than in the case of sound. In the process of de- veloping this volume, we have taken some cues from the work of science- studies scholars on the role of vision and visualization in the practice of science. Diagrams, sketches, equations, formulas, tables, graphs, photographs, and related vision- based analytical practices have been the focus of the work by science and technology stud- ies (STS) scholars and historians of science and technology for the past quarter cen- tury. Many informative studies have shown how scientifi c instruments, in the form of inscription devices, render the invisible visible.3 Michael Lynch has spoken of the age of the “externalized retina” to denote the importance of the visual culture to the study of science.4 While our libraries are fi lled with the important studies relevant to the visual elucidation of science, the importance of listening and hearing to the scien- tifi c enterprise has, until recently, been ignored.5 This volume attempts to redress the imbalance. We do not wish to ignore the vi- sual, as sound is often defi ned in comparison to it. Rather, we claim that studies fo- cusing on sound and listening stress other critical aspects of experimental science. Music provided knowledge, techniques, instruments, and data necessary for research in physiology, thermodynamics, psychology, phonetics, communication technology, and many other disciplines that seem remote from the art of sound. At the same time laboratory noises and sounds yielded important information. To give one example: pitches generated by labial and reed pipes in nineteenth- century laboratories con- 2 A notable exception was the Writing Science series edited by Timothy Lenoir and Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht at Stanford University Press. The journal Grey Room published a valuable introduction into “new German media studies” (vol. 29 [2007], ed. Eva Horn), with contributions by scholars who, after Friedrich Kittler, have given a new foundation to the fi eld of media studies in Germany (see his Discourse Networks, 1800/ 1900, with a foreword by David E. Wellbery [Stanford, Calif., 1990] and Gramophone, Film, Typewriter [Stanford, Calif., 1999]) and have also taken into account the history of science. The journal recently took up this thread, also giving room to historians of science, in the volume Audio/ Visual (43 [2011], ed. Mara Mills and John Tresch). 3 The classic works are Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life (London, 1979), and Latour, “Visualization and Cognition: Thinking with Our Eyes and Hands,” Knowledge in Society 6 (1986): 1– 40. 4 Lynch, “Externalized Retina: Selection and Mathematization in the Visual Documentation of Ob- jects in the Life Sciences,” Human Studies 11 (1988): 201– 34. 5 This point has been made by a variety of scholars. See, e.g., Trevor Pinch and Karin Bijsterveld, “Should One Applaud? Breaches and Boundaries in the Reception of New Technology in Music,” Technology and Culture 22 (2003): 536– 59; Pinch and Frank Trocco, Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer (Cambridge, Mass., 2002); Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900– 1933 (Cam- bridge, Mass., 2002); Jonathan Sterne, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Production (Ra- leigh, N.C., 2003). This content downloaded from 147.213.131.2 on Tue, 11 Nov 2014 08:06:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MUSIC, SOUND, AND THE LABORATORY FROM 1750 TO 1980 3 veyed the necessary data for the calculation of the speed of sound through air and other gases.6 Though originating in organ building, pipes thus took part in the experi- mental confi rmation of Laplace’s constant for the ratio of a sound wave’s density to its pressure and the study of adiabatic phenomena.7 Another example: in the biologi- cal laboratories of the 1980s, listening skills were used to track radioactive probes.8 As these examples show, scientifi c instruments not only generated transcriptions, they created aural information as well. Both the skill of hearing and the knowledge necessary for sound production were involved. Our volume tackles this reciprocity. We believe, perhaps unsurprisingly, that this reciprocity is historically bound. The relation between music and science changed profoundly during the two centuries this volume seeks to investigate. We argue that this change cannot be ascribed to the his- tory of music or the history of science alone, but points to the entwined histories of Western science and music that musicologist Emily Dolan and historian of science John Tresch envisage in their shared contribution to this volume. The interplay of research, technology, and music created new ways of listening. These new ways of listening in turn conferred status upon the sense of hearing in science. At the same time as audible data began to provide evidence, music led to detecting and listening to sounds created in the laboratory. This stimulated a circulation of material objects between science and music that forms an important theme of our volume. A brief gloss on this narrative follows. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, both music and science had under- gone radical transformations, which in turn colored their interactions. Music was no longer the main source of objects for acoustical experimentation. Natural scien- tists had turned to techniques of visualization and recording; the beautiful vibrat- ing plates of Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni are perhaps the best- known example. Sensory physiology, as well as the psychology of music and listening, emerged as empirical sciences that fi rmly integrated experimentation into their methodology. Seeking controlled phenomena for their investigations, these fi elds relied more and more on electronics for both the production and analysis of the investigated phenom- ena.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bernard M. Oliver Oral History Interview
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt658038wn Online items available Bernard M. Oliver Oral History Interview Daniel Hartwig Stanford University. Libraries.Department of Special Collections and University Archives Stanford, California November 2010 Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. Note This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0. Bernard M. Oliver Oral History SCM0111 1 Interview Overview Call Number: SCM0111 Creator: Oliver, Bernard M., 1916- Title: Bernard M. Oliver oral history interview Dates: 1985-1986 Physical Description: 0.02 Linear feet (1 folder) Summary: Transcript of an interview conducted by Arthur L. Norberg covering Oliver's early life, his education, and work experiences at Bell Laboratories and Hewlett-Packard. Subjects include television research, radar, information theory, organizational climate and objectives at both companies, Hewlett-Packard's associations with Stanford University, and Oliver's association with William Hewlett and David Packard. Language(s): The materials are in English. Repository: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford, CA 94305-6064 Email: [email protected] Phone: (650) 725-1022 URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Information about Access Reproduction is prohibited. Ownership & Copyright All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner.
    [Show full text]
  • The 17-Tone Puzzle — and the Neo-Medieval Key That Unlocks It
    The 17-tone Puzzle — And the Neo-medieval Key That Unlocks It by George Secor A Grave Misunderstanding The 17 division of the octave has to be one of the most misunderstood alternative tuning systems available to the microtonal experimenter. In comparison with divisions such as 19, 22, and 31, it has two major advantages: not only are its fifths better in tune, but it is also more manageable, considering its very reasonable number of tones per octave. A third advantage becomes apparent immediately upon hearing diatonic melodies played in it, one note at a time: 17 is wonderful for melody, outshining both the twelve-tone equal temperament (12-ET) and the Pythagorean tuning in this respect. The most serious problem becomes apparent when we discover that diatonic harmony in this system sounds highly dissonant, considerably more so than is the case with either 12-ET or the Pythagorean tuning, on which we were hoping to improve. Without any further thought, most experimenters thus consign the 17-tone system to the discard pile, confident in the knowledge that there are, after all, much better alternatives available. My own thinking about 17 started in exactly this way. In 1976, having been a microtonal experimenter for thirteen years, I went on record, dismissing 17-ET in only a couple of sentences: The 17-tone equal temperament is of questionable harmonic utility. If you try it, I doubt you’ll stay with it for long.1 Since that time I have become aware of some things which have caused me to change my opinion completely.
    [Show full text]
  • Small Wonders the US National Nanotechnology Initiative Has Spent Billions of Dollars on Submicroscopic Science in Its First 10 Years
    NEWS FEATURE NATURE|Vol 467|2 September 2010 Simulation of the flow pattern for electrons travelling over a random nanoscale landscape. Small wonders The US National Nanotechnology Initiative has spent billions of dollars on submicroscopic science in its first 10 years. Corie Lok finds out where the money went and what the initiative plans to do next. ichard Smalley’s cheeks were gaunt and promised to conduct electricity better than It was a message that Washington was ready his hair was nearly gone when he testi- copper, but also had the potential to produce to hear. US President Bill Clinton formally fied before the US House of Representa- fibres 100 times stronger than steel at one- announced the initiative in 2000, with bipar- tives in June 1999. The Nobel laureate sixth of the weight. Smalley also predicted tisan support from Congress. The initiative R, HARVARD UNIV. HARVARD R, R E chemist had been diagnosed with non-Hodg- that the “very blunt tool” of chemotherapy that has faced some criticism in the decade since LL kin’s lymphoma a few months earlier, chemo- had ravaged his own body would be obsolete — most notably for its slowness to address E therapy was taking its toll, and the journey within 20 years, because scientists would engi- environmental, health and safety concerns H J. E. from Rice University in Houston, Texas, had neer nanoscale drugs that were “essentially about nanomaterials. But it has also created been exhausting. But none of that dimmed his cancer-seeking missiles” able more than 70 nano-related obvious passion for a subject that his listen- to target mutant cells with “As chemists, we academic or government ers found both mystifying and enthralling: minimal side effects.
    [Show full text]
  • The Science of String Instruments
    The Science of String Instruments Thomas D. Rossing Editor The Science of String Instruments Editor Thomas D. Rossing Stanford University Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) Stanford, CA 94302-8180, USA [email protected] ISBN 978-1-4419-7109-8 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-7110-4 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-7110-4 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer ScienceþBusiness Media (www.springer.com) Contents 1 Introduction............................................................... 1 Thomas D. Rossing 2 Plucked Strings ........................................................... 11 Thomas D. Rossing 3 Guitars and Lutes ........................................................ 19 Thomas D. Rossing and Graham Caldersmith 4 Portuguese Guitar ........................................................ 47 Octavio Inacio 5 Banjo ...................................................................... 59 James Rae 6 Mandolin Family Instruments........................................... 77 David J. Cohen and Thomas D. Rossing 7 Psalteries and Zithers .................................................... 99 Andres Peekna and Thomas D.
    [Show full text]
  • White Paper: Acoustics Primer for Music Spaces
    WHITE PAPER: ACOUSTICS PRIMER FOR MUSIC SPACES ACOUSTICS PRIMER Music is learned by listening. To be effective, rehearsal rooms, practice rooms and performance areas must provide an environment designed to support musical sound. It’s no surprise then that the most common questions we hear and the most frustrating problems we see have to do with acoustics. That’s why we’ve put this Acoustics Primer together. In simple terms we explain the fundamental acoustical concepts that affect music areas. Our hope is that music educators, musicians, school administrators and even architects and planners can use this information to better understand what they are, and are not, hearing in their music spaces. And, by better understanding the many variables that impact acoustical environ- ments, we believe we can help you with accurate diagnosis and ultimately, better solutions. For our purposes here, it is not our intention to provide an exhaustive, technical resource on the physics of sound and acoustical construction methods — that has already been done and many of the best works are listed in our bibliography and recommended readings on page 10. Rather, we want to help you establish a base-line knowledge of acoustical concepts that affect music education and performance spaces. This publication contains information reviewed by Professor M. David Egan. Egan is a consultant in acoustics and Professor Emeritus at the College of Architecture, Clemson University. He has been principal consultant of Egan Acoustics in Anderson, South Carolina for more than 35 years. A graduate of Lafayette College (B.S.) and MIT (M.S.), Professor Eagan also has taught at Tulane University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Washington University.
    [Show full text]
  • Research on the History of Modern Acoustics François Ribac, Viktoria Tkaczyk
    Research on the history of modern acoustics François Ribac, Viktoria Tkaczyk To cite this version: François Ribac, Viktoria Tkaczyk. Research on the history of modern acoustics. Revue d’Anthropologie des Connaissances, Société d’Anthropologie des Connaissances, 2019, Musical knowl- edge, science studies, and resonances, 13 (3), pp.707-720. 10.3917/rac.044.0707. hal-02423917 HAL Id: hal-02423917 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02423917 Submitted on 26 Dec 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. RESEARCH ON THE HISTORY OF MODERN ACOUSTICS Interview with Viktoria Tkaczyk, director of the Epistemes of Modern Acoustics research group at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin François Ribac S.A.C. | « Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances » 2019/3 Vol. 13, No 3 | pages 707 - 720 This document is the English version of: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- François Ribac, « Recherche en histoire de l’acoustique moderne », Revue d'anthropologie
    [Show full text]
  • Pedal in Liszt's Piano Music!
    ! Abstract! The purpose of this study is to discuss the problems that occur when some of Franz Liszt’s original pedal markings are realized on the modern piano. Both the construction and sound of the piano have developed since Liszt’s time. Some of Liszt’s curious long pedal indications produce an interesting sound effect on instruments built in his time. When these pedal markings are realized on modern pianos the sound is not as clear as on a Liszt-time piano and in some cases it is difficult to recognize all the tones in a passage that includes these pedal markings. The precondition of this study is the respectful following of the pedal indications as scored by the composer. Therefore, the study tries to find means of interpretation (excluding the more frequent change of the pedal), which would help to achieve a clearer sound with the !effects of the long pedal on a modern piano.! This study considers the factors that create the difference between the sound quality of Liszt-time and modern instruments. Single tones in different registers have been recorded on both pianos for that purpose. The sound signals from the two pianos have been presented in graphic form and an attempt has been made to pinpoint the dissimilarities. In addition, some examples of the long pedal desired by Liszt have been recorded and the sound signals of these examples have been analyzed. The study also deals with certain aspects of the impact of texture and register on the clarity of sound in the case of the long pedal.
    [Show full text]
  • On an Experimentum Crucis for Optics
    Research Report: On an Experimentum Crucis for Optics Ionel DINU, M.Sc. Teacher of Physics E-mail: [email protected] (Dated: November 17, 2010) Abstract Formulated almost 150 years ago, Thomas Young’s hypothesis that light might be a transverse wave has never been seriously questioned, much less subjected to experiment. In this article I report on an attempt to prove experimentally that Young’s hypothesis is untenable. Although it has certain limitations, the experiment seems to show that sound in air, a longitudinal wave, can be “polarized” by reflection just like light, and this can be used as evidence against Young’s hypothesis. Further refinements of the experimental setup may yield clearer results, making this report useful to those interested in the important issue of whether light is a transverse or a longitudinal wave. Introduction In the course of development of science, there has always been a close connection between sound and light [1]. Acoustics stimulated research and discovery in optics and vice-versa. Reflection and refraction being the first common points observed between the two, the analogy between optical and acoustical phenomena has been proven also in the case of interference, diffraction, Doppler effect, and even in their mode of production: sounds are produced by the vibration of macroscopic objects, while light is produced by vibrating molecules and atoms. The wave nature of sound implies that light is also a wave and, if matter must be present for sound to be propagated, then aether must exist in order to account for the propagation of light through spaces void of all the matter known to chemistry.
    [Show full text]
  • Linear and Nonlinear Waves
    Scholarpedia, 4(7):4308 www.scholarpedia.org Linear and nonlinear waves Graham W. Griffithsy and William E. Schiesser z City University,UK; Lehigh University, USA. Received April 20, 2009; accepted July 9, 2009 Historical Preamble The study of waves can be traced back to antiquity where philosophers, such as Pythagoras (c.560-480 BC), studied the relation of pitch and length of string in musical instruments. However, it was not until the work of Giovani Benedetti (1530-90), Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637) and Galileo (1564-1642) that the relationship between pitch and frequency was discovered. This started the science of acoustics, a term coined by Joseph Sauveur (1653-1716) who showed that strings can vibrate simultaneously at a fundamental frequency and at integral multiples that he called harmonics. Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was the first to calculate the speed of sound in his Principia. However, he assumed isothermal conditions so his value was too low compared with measured values. This discrepancy was resolved by Laplace (1749-1827) when he included adiabatic heating and cooling effects. The first analytical solution for a vibrating string was given by Brook Taylor (1685-1731). After this, advances were made by Daniel Bernoulli (1700-82), Leonard Euler (1707-83) and Jean d'Alembert (1717-83) who found the first solution to the linear wave equation, see section (3.2). Whilst others had shown that a wave can be represented as a sum of simple harmonic oscillations, it was Joseph Fourier (1768-1830) who conjectured that arbitrary functions can be represented by the superposition of an infinite sum of sines and cosines - now known as the Fourier series.
    [Show full text]
  • Download the Just Intonation Primer
    THE JUST INTONATION PPRIRIMMEERR An introduction to the theory and practice of Just Intonation by David B. Doty Uncommon Practice — a CD of original music in Just Intonation by David B. Doty This CD contains seven compositions in Just Intonation in diverse styles — ranging from short “fractured pop tunes” to extended orchestral movements — realized by means of MIDI technology. My principal objectives in creating this music were twofold: to explore some of the novel possibilities offered by Just Intonation and to make emotionally and intellectually satisfying music. I believe I have achieved both of these goals to a significant degree. ——David B. Doty The selections on this CD pro­­cess—about synthesis, decisions. This is definitely detected in certain struc- were composed between sampling, and MIDI, about not experimental music, in tures and styles of elabora- approximately 1984 and Just Intonation, and about the Cageian sense—I am tion. More prominent are 1995 and recorded in 1998. what compositional styles more interested in result styles of polyphony from the All of them use some form and techniques are suited (aesthetic response) than Western European Middle of Just Intonation. This to various just tunings. process. Ages and Renaissance, method of tuning is com- Taken collectively, there It is tonal music (with a garage rock from the 1960s, mendable for its inherent is no conventional name lowercase t), music in which Balkan instrumental dance beauty, its variety, and its for the music that resulted hierarchic relations of tones music, the ancient Japanese long history (it is as old from this process, other are important and in which court music gagaku, Greek as civilization).
    [Show full text]
  • From Big Data to Econophysics and Its Use to Explain Complex Phenomena
    Journal of Risk and Financial Management Review From Big Data to Econophysics and Its Use to Explain Complex Phenomena Paulo Ferreira 1,2,3,* , Éder J.A.L. Pereira 4,5 and Hernane B.B. Pereira 4,6 1 VALORIZA—Research Center for Endogenous Resource Valorization, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal 2 Department of Economic Sciences and Organizations, Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal 3 Centro de Estudos e Formação Avançada em Gestão e Economia, Instituto de Investigação e Formação Avançada, Universidade de Évora, Largo dos Colegiais 2, 7000 Évora, Portugal 4 Programa de Modelagem Computacional, SENAI Cimatec, Av. Orlando Gomes 1845, 41 650-010 Salvador, BA, Brazil; [email protected] (É.J.A.L.P.); [email protected] (H.B.B.P.) 5 Instituto Federal do Maranhão, 65075-441 São Luís-MA, Brazil 6 Universidade do Estado da Bahia, 41 150-000 Salvador, BA, Brazil * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 5 June 2020; Accepted: 10 July 2020; Published: 13 July 2020 Abstract: Big data has become a very frequent research topic, due to the increase in data availability. In this introductory paper, we make the linkage between the use of big data and Econophysics, a research field which uses a large amount of data and deals with complex systems. Different approaches such as power laws and complex networks are discussed, as possible frameworks to analyze complex phenomena that could be studied using Econophysics and resorting to big data. Keywords: big data; complexity; networks; stock markets; power laws 1. Introduction Big data has become a very popular expression in recent years, related to the advance of technology which allows, on the one hand, the recovery of a great amount of data, and on the other hand, the analysis of that data, benefiting from the increasing computational capacity of devices.
    [Show full text]
  • The Physical Modelling of Society: a Historical Perspective
    Physica A 314 (2002) 1–14 www.elsevier.com/locate/physa The physical modelling ofsociety: a historical perspective Philip Ball Nature, 4-6 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, UK Abstract By seeking to uncover the rules ofcollective human activities, today’s statistical physicists are aiming to return to their roots. Statistics originated in the study ofsocial numbers in the 17th century, and the discovery ofstatistical invariants in data on births and deaths, crimes and marriages led some scientists and philosophers to conclude that society was governed by immutable “natural” laws beyond the reach ofgovernments, ofwhich the Gaussian “error curve” became regarded as the leitmotif. While statistics .ourished as a mathematical tool of all the sciences in the 19th century, it provoked passionate responses from philosophers, novelists and social commentators. Social statistics also guided Maxwell and Boltzmann towards the utilization ofprobability distributions in the development ofthe kinetic theory ofgases, the foundationof statistical mechanics. c 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Statistics; History ofphysics; Statistical mechanics; Social science; Gaussian 1. Introduction The introduction ofprobability into the fundamentalnature ofthe quantum world by Bohr, Born and Schr8odinger in the 1920s famously scandalized some scholars ofscience’s philosophical foundations.But arguments about chance, probability and determinism were no less heated in the mid-19th century, when statistical ideas entered classical physics. James Clerk Maxwell (1878) let probabilistic physics bring him to the verge of mysticism: “it is the peculiar function of physical science to lead us to the conÿnes of the incomprehensible, and to bid us behold and receive it in faith, till such time as the E-mail address: [email protected] (P.
    [Show full text]