Music: Bug or Feature?

[Alvin]

?

[Alvin]

Much as I enjoy it, I’d classify it as a bug. It’s mostly a distraction.

[steeldancer-x]

Good glitch

[Alvin]

I’ve been pondering again whether music is more of a bug than a feature in human culture. This may sound a bit off-kilter, but hear me out.

Music, like art, doesn’t seem to serve an explicitly functional or optimizable purpose in the way other systems in life do. It’s not something we can streamline or reduce down to a core efficiency. Instead, it thrives on detours, errors, and those strange little tangents that pop up during the creative process.

In fact, some of the most fascinating and evocative music comes from happy accidents, unexpected moments where the 'rules' break down, and something new emerges. In these moments, the creator isn’t fully in control; instead, the music seems to take on a life of its own, pushing the boundaries of what we thought we wanted to create. Think of how so many iconic sounds or movements in music history initially sounded ‘wrong.’

We wouldn't want to ‘fix’ this bug either, because music, in its essence, operates best when it's a little unpredictable, when it isn’t fully optimized.

[NTFMTS]

I feel like you need to qualify what you mean by bug more. Music is transformative and therapuetic, and deeply tied to language and communication. The oldest civilizations, on record at least, had music. The sum of its whole has a greater impact on many people.

[Alvin]

I think it’s also important to recognize that music, while capable of healing, can be used in destructive ways too. For example, its use as a form of torture at places like Guantanamo Bay. The same qualities that make music powerful can also be twisted for darker purposes, which highlights its ambiguous nature.

When we consider instrumental music, it can be seen as a form of communication, yet it isn’t literal communication in the way language is. Music often conveys emotions or abstract ideas, but its inherent ambiguities can sometimes obscure or even distort meaning. In that sense, rather than adding clarity, it could be said that music introduces complexity, even "corrupting" meaning at times.

What fascinates me most is how music’s ingredients are rooted in physical laws like vibration, time and space but somehow, it isn’t confined by these structures. Music can evolve and elaborate infinitely beyond the basic dimensions that shape it, suggesting that while it may originate from the material world, it takes on a life of its own, free to grow in unpredictable directions. This ability to endlessly shift and reshape is what leads me to think of it as a ‘bug,’ something that breaks away from strict function.

[NTFMTS]

I think it’s also important to recognize that music, while capable of healing, can be used in destructive ways too. For example, its use as a form of torture at places like Guantanamo Bay. The same qualities that make music powerful can also be twisted for darker purposes, which highlights its ambiguous nature.

When we consider instrumental music, it can be seen as a form of communication, yet it isn’t literal communication in the way language is. Music often conveys emotions or abstract ideas, but its inherent ambiguities can sometimes obscure or even distort meaning. In that sense, rather than adding clarity, it could be said that music introduces complexity, even "corrupting" meaning at times.

What fascinates me most is how music’s ingredients are rooted in physical laws like vibration, time and space but somehow, it isn’t confined by these structures. Music can evolve and elaborate infinitely beyond the basic dimensions that shape it, suggesting that while it may originate from the material world, it takes on a life of its own, free to grow in unpredictable directions. This ability to endlessly shift and reshape is what leads me to think of it as a ‘bug,’ something that breaks away from strict function.

I don't think music is necessarily a dichotomy of therapy vs. torture. It's a means of torture at Guantanamo because that's what they specialize in, all possible means of torture. Most music in the world ends up bringing people together or inspiring others to make it themselves. But I definitely agree that music can be ambigious.

In terms of music's complexity and laws ruited in physics, have you heard of the twelfth root of two? Definitely look into it if not, it's fascinating.

I guess in that way music is a "bug" by your definition, but I'd also elevate that and use words like magic as well. It certainly has a vast amount of influence on humans.

But my last question is, certain birds enjoy music themselves, although "song" is also their inherent communicative function, is music a bug for them too? Just curious what you think!

[Alvin]

But my last question is, certain birds enjoy music themselves, although "song" is also their inherent communicative function, is music a bug for them too? Just curious what you think!

You raise a very interesting point which does sort of poke holes in my concept. Birdsong certainly seems less like a ‘bug’ because it often serves clear communicative purposes: alerting others to food sources, marking territory, or even signaling changes in the weather. That said, I do wonder if some of it is simply pure expression as well, without any direct functional purpose.

What’s fascinating is that the ability to be musical seems deeply integrated into birds' biology, whereas for humans, I'd argue music is more of a cultural phenomenon, something we learn and pass down through generations.

But then it raises a bigger question: what exactly is the distinction between music and sound? Is it the aesthetic arrangement of sound, or something else entirely? It feels like we enter a grey area where utility and expression start to blur.