May 17, 2018
Laurel or Yanny? The wider significance
Laurel or Yanny? Did you try this? The first time I listened on my Desktop and heard an unmistakeable “Laurel”. It seemed crazy to suggest the sound was something else. Then I heard it on TV, and later the radio, then on my IPad – all clearly and unequivocally “Yanny”
This is not just a trick of the brain interpreting as best it can from a poor recording. This has implications more generally, in communication and personal beliefs systems. It is a lesson in humility – the obvious may not be obvious to others, what they hear may be different to what we hear. Rather than being Right or Wrong things are more likely to be complex, more or less correct, possible or probable – being definite or dogmatic can alienate and polarise, but we are all One within a creative range of differences. An Ancient Greek Philosopher suggested that there was only one basic issue – the Problem of the Many and the One.
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