Emergence

Physics is the fundamental science in that it describes the workings of the universe at all scales.  No other science is so comprehensive.

Will our knowledge of physics finally lead us to a “Theory of Everything”?  Perhaps, but the Theory of Everything alone will not be able to describe, predict, or explain its full expression upon/within the universe—no more so than our musical notation system can explain how a Brahms symphony was composed, nor its effect upon the listener.

Reductionism states that the whole is the sum of its parts, but emergence states that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

There are many examples of emergent properties in the natural world, what one might call radical novelty.  Some examples:  crystal structure (e.g. a salt crystal or a snowflake), ripples in a sand dune, clouds, life itself.  Social organization (e.g. a school of fish or a city), consciousness.

John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2008) created a diagram that nicely illustrates an emergent property of the universe that is important to us.

The universe viewed as a self-excited circuit. Starting simply (thin U at right), the universe grows in complexity with time (thick U at left), eventually giving rise to observer-participancy, which in turn imparts “tangible reality” to even the earliest days of the universe.

Richard Wolfson writes,

At some level of complexity, emergent properties become so interesting that, although we understand that they come from particles that are held together by the laws of physics, we can’t understand or appreciate them through physics alone.

I like to think of emergence as an expression of creativity. Our universe is inherently creative, just as we humans express ourselves creatively through music, art, literature, architecture, and in so many other ways.

Creativity is the most natural process in the universe. It’s in our DNA.

But DNA alone can’t explain it.

References

Richard Wolfson, The Great Courses, Course No. 1280, “Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works”, Lecture 1: “The Fundamental Science”, 2011.


“And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T. S. Eliot

Tucson Classical Music Performances 2023

Here’s a comprehensive list of live classical music performances in Tucson for the year 2023 where the program of composers and works has been published. I will keep this Excel document regularly updated. Please post a comment if anything should be added or changed.

I’ve included a column called “Dave’s Faves” which notes the works I am already familiar with and that I highly recommend. This is subjective, of course, but I hope this will help some of you in deciding which concerts to attend.

Happy Listening!

Link below is an Excel file (.xlsx).
Last Updated: December 12, 2023

Tucson Classical Music Performances 2023

Click here for 2024 concerts.


Music for Listeners

Music for Listeners is a series of short courses for high school students and adults presenting the works of composers from a listening enjoyment rather than a music theory perspective. Each course presents the life and music of a composer chronologically and is taught by lifelong classical music enthusiast David Oesper. Our next course will feature the life and music of Sergei Prokofiev and will be taught in January-February 2024.

David has previously taught a course on Johannes Brahms. It consists of seven 90-minute sessions.

If you are interested in attending the Prokofiev course or would like a reprise of the Brahms course (or, for more information), please contact the instructor here.


Classical Music Exploration Club

If you live in the Tucson metro area and would like to get together each month to listen to and discuss recordings of favorite classical music pieces we love and would like to introduce to others, I hope you will consider joining:

Tucson Exploring Classical Music


Sources
Tucson Symphony Orchestra
Arizona Friends of Chamber Music
University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music
Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra
Civic Orchestra of Tucson
Tucson Repertory Orchestra
Saint Andrew’s Bach Society
Arizona Early Music
True Concord, Voices & Orchestra
Arizona Opera
Helios Ensemble
Tucson Masterworks Chorale

Ending Spring Forward, Fall Back

On March 15, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to end the twice annual switch between Standard Time and Daylight Saving Time. So far so good. That leaves us now with two choices: standard time year round or daylight saving time year round. Unfortunately, they have chosen the latter. The fact that there was no debate on this point suggests the esteemed senators collectively have little understanding of science—or, at least, biology and astronomy.

Most astronomers (those that actually observe) and astronomy educators don’t like daylight saving time because it delays the onset of darkness by an hour: most of us observe in the evening and not right before dawn. Cruelly, daylight saving time prevents many young people from experiencing the wonders of the night sky because it gets dark around or after their bedtime during the warmer months of the year.

Non-astronomers (which, let’s face it, includes most of us) that rise early in the morning will spend even more of their year getting up while it is still dark out. In the northern U.S. at least that means that during the winter months, many school children will be going to school in the dark when it is still bitterly cold.

I have written previously on this topic.

As for biology, unless all of us also start our work days and school days an hour later, year-round daylight saving time will further mess with our already-damaged circadian rhythms—and most of us don’t get enough sleep as it is. As many studies have shown, this leads to a number of negative consequences affecting our health and well being.

The answer is, of course, to adopt standard time year-round as Arizona currently does. Even that is now in jeopardy as Arizona is likely to join the bandwagon and go to permanent daylight saving time, if this legislation is enacted.

This legislation now goes to the U.S. House of Representatives and, if it passes there, on to President Biden’s desk to sign into law. If that happens, most/all? of the U.S. will be going to permanent daylight saving time beginning officially November 5, 2023 (actually, March 12, 2023).

Is anyone pushing for year-round standard time instead? You bet.

I encourage you to support this organization, Save Standard Time, a registered 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization.