William Hong wrote:

>On the wider topic at hand, there's one "experiment" whose results
>I would wish greatly to see, but which probably none of us ever will.
>That would be to see the reaction of some extraterrestrial being who
>came upon the Voyager spacecraft that are streaming away from the solar
>system, and who played the analog sound records that are lashed to them.
>These are the records which carry a number of Western classical and other
>types of art music, world musics, sounds of the earth, animals, people
>etc.  Would they associate a "language" to the music, in the same way
>they might analyze the human speech or bird call samples?

Thinking about that...I do wonder about bird songs...I know very little
about them, but I wonder how large their "repertoire" might be.

I am reminded of the parents who lived next door...they had a 3 note
phrase they would sing out to tell their children it was time to come
home for supper.

Karl