Sunday, July 17, 2005

"The Harmonics of Music and Meaning"
Galen Guengerich

My favorite universal law posted on Edge.org was originated by Ernst Poppel, a brain researcher at the University of Munich. Dubbed Poppel’s Universal, it asserts that “We take life three seconds at a time.” Poppel illustrates his law by pointing out that a handshake lasts about three seconds. So does the preparation for a golf swing, short-term memory, a phrase in spontaneous speech, and the pause when channel surfing for a television program to watch.

Poppel's Universal prompted me to formulate a universal law of my own. Like all such laws, it is based on my observation of the natural world, yet it applies directly to our experience as human beings. I call it Galen's Law of Diminutives, or more informally, The Law of the Small. The law is this: "Small adjustments result in big changes."

The Harmonics of Music and Meaning / complete text (PDF)

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