More than a few in my line of work, particularly those from the generation before me, are amateur musicians. The first time it became clear to me was in Gale Dick's living room on Friday evenings. He loved to play the violin and had a nice homemade harpsichord as well as a piano. Friends would come to play, or in my case just listen to, chamber music. Regulars included a couple of physicists, a mathematician, a chemist, as well as some real musicians who seemed to enjoy themselves anyway. It was great fun and the beginning of a life-long addiction to live music, even though I'm just a lurker.
Years later I asked Gale if he understood the connection. He paused and then replied Bach letting it sink in before elaborating. Bach ... you see, so much of it has beautiful symmetries... He recalled when he was coming to grips with group theory in grad school. The year before he'd come across Noether's Theorem and was blown away.1 Years later, deep into the thicket of a difficult problem, he found himself playing a Bach violin sonata in his mind.
Then magic crackled and the work I was doing connected rather profoundly to those other areas.
Words came easily to him and new ones, or at least ones I couldn't find in the dictionary, would appear. As he described the violin sonata sequence, one I hadn't heard before appeared:
You see, Bach's music is this abracadaptor that connects two different kinds of magic giving birth to something that is also magic.
That was a long time ago. Years later I found myself giving a talk at Disney Animation. After lunch I spent the afternoon chatting with a number of people. Then it happened. We were talking about the curious physics that often appears in cartoons. He said that Walt Disney had a set of rules that defined how things moved in his world building. The rules are good enough that most survive intact.
They're the abracadaptor that connects the original story with the artwork. When it's well done the resulting magic is better than what went into it.
Today I found myself using it in a text message to Sarah. The beach volleyball season that ultimately determines selection for the Paris Olympics begins in Doha tomorrow. She and her new partner Sophie have only been playing together for a short time and are still working things out.
You’re armed with some new knowledge and are likely making great progress putting your abracadaptor into regular operation.°
° abracadaptor. n. - A mechanism or technique that connects two different kinds of magic.
There are people who do this: that rare skill that allows them to connect the conversation of those with very different backgrounds creating a deep and wonderful communication. It's a skill I lack and I'm in awe of the few who can do it. I like to use some engineering terminology to describe these people - impudence matches. At its highest level two different magics are connected creating something deeper and an abracadaptor is afoot.
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1 Don't worry about either of these if they sound foreign. Both are important tools in the study of symmetry and deeply connected with physics.
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