Herbert, I have over forty years experience with computers (met my first one in 1962, learning to program the IBM 1401 in machine language). (Although I've been in and out of the business over those years). And some of it has been in process control real time programming at the machine level, which is modeling.
> until it produced plans for an optimum lute. Assuming these plans were > different from any extant plans, one could then build from them and expect > the resultant lute to be superior to all existing lutes. Yup, we can do it. Computer modeling can do anything as long as we have the ability to try all options, no matter how non-intuitive or intelligent. The computer has become competitive with chess masters, but it has taken a lot of programming to do it. But I can write a program that will destroy chess as a game, and I think I could do it in a year. A "brute force" solution. All I need to do is program all the possible games through to the finish. Not a big job to write, but a bit of a problem to run. My estimate is that given current computer speeds it might take a thousand years to run the program, and god knows how long for the printouts. There are 20 opening moves for white (the pawns have 16, and the knights have 4). And for each of those black has 20 answers. An estimate was made some years ago that the number of possible move combinations approximates, or exceeds, the estimated number of atoms in the universe. So maybe my brute force program could take ten thousand years to run, something that the late Doug Adams would appreciate. > > However, IMHO, modeling the complex parts (including the air), and their > joints and interactions, with sufficient precision, would be a difficult, > perhaps impossible, programming challenge. I'm with you, even if you got the air involved the "butterfly in China" syndrome could occur <vbg>. And if you picked the wrong tree for the wood for that optimum lute it might have had a bad year some time ago and not meet the specs. In a sense it is the imperfections that make the sound. Given the speed of digital sampling sounds can be duplicated with all their resonances to the extent of the human ear's ability to discriminate - but somehow I don't see myself wanting to hear a computer concert. Best, Jon
