Learn about how digital technology is changing the way we listen to music and other audio from special guest Damon Krukowski, who is a musician, writer, and author of the new book “Ways of Hearing.” We’ll also answer a listener question about whether there’s a limit to how much we can know. Get your copy of “Ways of Hearing” on Amazon: https://amazon.com More from Damon Krukowski: “Ways of Hearing” on Amazon — https://amazon.com Damon Krukowski’s website — http://www.dadadrummer.com/ Pitchfork profile — https://pitchfork.com/staff/damon-krukowski/ Follow Damon K on Twitter @dada_drummer — https://twitter.com/dada_drummer Radiotopia Showcase — https://www.radiotopia.fm/showcase/ways-of-hearing Additional resources discussed: What’s the most we can remember? | BBC — http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150401-whats-the-most-we-can-remember Memory Capacity of the Brain is 10 Times More than Previously Thought | Salk Institute for Biological Studies — https://www.salk.edu/news-release/memory-capacity-of-brain-is-10-times-more-than-previously-thought/ What Is the Memory Capacity of the Human Brain? | Scientific American — https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-memory-capacity/ Your Short-Term Memory Can Only Hold 7 Items (But You Can Use This Trick) | Curiosity.com — https://curiosity.im/2L0IdcI If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about how digital technology is changing the way we listen to music and other audio from special guest Damon Krukowski, who is a musician, writer, and author of the new book “Ways of Hearing.” We’ll also answer a listener question about whether there’s a limit to how much we can know.
Get your copy of “Ways of Hearing” on Amazon: https://amazon.com
More from Damon Krukowski:
Additional resources discussed:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-digital-audio-has-changed-listening-w-damon-krukowski-and-how-much-you-can-know
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about how digital technology is changing the way we listen to music and other audio from a special guest: writer, musician, and podcaster Damon Krukowski. We’ll also answer a listener question about whether there’s a limit to how much a person can know.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Damon Krukowski Interview Clip 1 - Signal vs Noise
CODY: You listen to things all the time, whether it’s this podcast or music on your favorite radio station. But you probably don’t pay that much attention to HOW you listen. One person who has is our guest for our Sunday Sounds mini-series. Damon Krukowski is a writer and musician, and you may have heard him host of the Ways of Hearing podcast, which was part of the Radiotopia Showcase, and is now a book from the MIT Press. In Ways of Hearing, he examines how the switch from analog to digital audio is changing our perceptions — of time, space, love, money, and power. In part of our conversation, Damon explained how digital processing and other technology is removing “noise” from what we hear: for example, you can use editing software to remove unwanted sounds from a podcast recording, or stretch or change the pitch of an instrument’s notes. So that’s a good thing… right? Well, Damon doesn’t think so. Here’s what Ashley asked him.
[CLIP 2:10]
CODY: So “signal” is what you want to hear, and “noise” is what you don’t want to hear, but that quote-unquote “unwanted noise” still tells you a lot about what you’re hearing. By the way, in this context, “analog” refers to anything that’s not digital — so that can include an analog recording, radio signal, or even just talking to someone in real life. Here’s Damon again on what that means.
[CLIP 2:34]
CODY: So what’s the right balance between signal and noise? That’s the question Damon Krukowski explores in his new book, “Ways of Hearing.” You’ll hear from him again next Sunday, and in the meantime, you can find links to the book and other links to Damon’s work in today’s show notes.
[NHTSA]
ASHLEY: Today’s episode is paid for by NIT-suh. It can be a little frustrating, especially if you’re in a hurry or running late, to find yourself at a railway crossing, waiting for a train. And if the signals are going and the train’s not even there yet, you can feel a bit tempted to try and sneak across the tracks.
CODY: Well, don’t. Ever. Trains are often going a lot faster than you expect them to be. And they can’t stop. Even if the engineer hits the brakes right away, it can take a train over a mile to stop.
ASHLEY: By that time, what used to be your car is just a crushed hunk of metal and what used to be you… well, better not to think about that. The point is, you can’t know how quickly the train will arrive. The train can’t stop even if it sees you. The result is disaster.
CODY: If the signals are on, the train is on its way. And you... just need to remember one thing… Stop. Trains can’t.
Listener Question (Ashley)
ASHLEY: We got a listener question from John on Twitter, who wrote, “On your March 14th episode you mentioned we always have room in our brains for more knowledge. I know it wasn’t meant to be a statement of fact when you said it, but it got me thinking - is there a limit to how much we can know?” Great question, John!
This is actually a pretty contentious topic in neuroscience circles. You’d think that since the brain is a physical organ, it must have some limit to how much knowledge it can store. I mean, a brain only has about 100 billion neurons, after all. If the brain acted like a computer hard drive and only let you store a single unit of information in each of those neurons, you’d run out of room pretty fast. But that’s not actually how memory works. Instead, memories and information are stored in the connections between neurons. Neurons send out little branches that connect with branches from other neurons at a junction known as a synapse. When you recall the capital of Luxembourg or where you parked your car, that’s thanks to signals flowing across this connection from one neuron to the next, sometimes continuing over entire networks of neurons. And get this: each of your 100 billion neurons can make thousands of those connections with thousands of other neurons, which can make thousands more themselves.
So how does that translate into the memory capacity of the human brain? That’s hard to say, since memories don’t come in individual bytes like they do on a computer. There are a lot of estimates out there, but even on the low end it’s pretty huge: somewhere between 1 terabyte and two and a half petabytes. By the way, one terabyte is about 1,000 gigabytes, and one petabyte is 1,000 terabytes. It’s a lot. But in reality, it’s kind of useless to even talk about the brain’s memory capacity in terms of a hard drive. Many regions of the brain are involved in many different memories at the same time, while other regions aren’t used for memory storage at all. But at least for practical purposes, there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the brain’s overall capacity. There are a lot of champion memorizers and memory savants out there, and nobody has ever seemed to have found the brain’s memory limit. But there is a limit to your short-term memory, the part of your memory that only holds onto information for a few minutes at a time. That limit is seven: most people can hold onto seven units of information before they start to forget. We’ll include a link to our whole article about that idea, known as Miller’s Law, in the show notes. Thanks for your question, John! If you have a question, send it in to podcast at curiosity dot com.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150401-whats-the-most-we-can-remember
https://www.salk.edu/news-release/memory-capacity-of-brain-is-10-times-more-than-previously-thought/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-memory-capacity/
CODY: Before we wrap up, we want to give a special shout-out to Muhammad Shifaz and Dr. Mary Yancy, who are executive producers for today’s episode thanks to their generous support on Patreon. Thank you SO. MUCH.
ASHLEY: If you’re listening and you want to support Curiosity Daily, then visit patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com, all spelled out. We’re producing special podcast episodes and offering other exclusive perks to show our appreciation for your support. One more time, you can learn more at Patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com.
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