> > It reminds me a little about intensive and extensive
> variables
> > in physics. That may well be unrelated though ...
>
> I don't think it is directly related to that particular
> difference. But it certainly is related to a more general
> form of it - seeing each 'unit' in its own domain, and
> some domains being fully isolated from others.
>
I do think it has something to do with intensive vs extensive in the following
way:
when we talk about sound waves, temperature, smell, brightness, etc, these are
macro-observables representing a statistically huge number of micro-states.
This is how our human senses make sense of these huge sets (cf. statistical
physics founded by Boltzmann that explains classic thermodynamics). It is
therefore difficult for our brain to strictly quantify variations of these huge
sets that our senses can only approach "roughly" by statistical "reduction".
On the other hand, any discreet observable that our senses can reach directly
(e.g. volume of an object of the same size order as our own body) is easily
quantifiable.
Just a guess ...
J.
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