Predicting Digital Music

Lots has been written about how hard and/or speculative science fiction influenced the generations of scientists, designers, and engineers.

It’s doubtful that the cover to this 50’s science fiction pulp actually inspired scientists to invent digital music. Yet, it has it’s own speculative sci-fi charm.

Check out the creative musical genius at his super, space age computer. The musical notes swirl through the air, twist, and are broken down into components. The note head, flags, and stems break apart and seem to turn into something that looks a lot like binary code.

At that time, there might have been some awareness of punch cards. This early technology was invented by Herman Hollerith in 1890, which means someone interested in computers would have probably been aware of the visual language.

It’s a totally inconclusive and speculative observation, but fun nonetheless. Sort of like a good science fiction novel.