this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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We like music because our brains crave pattern recognition. (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 6 days ago by Yondoza@sh.itjust.works to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Music is just layered simple patterns and our brains LOVE IT.

Sound is pressure waves, musical notes are a specific pattern of pressure waves. Melodies are repeated musical notes. Songs are repeated melodies following standard structure.

Our brains love trying to decode and parse all these overlapping patterns.

Maybe not really a shower thought and more wild speculation.

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[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 days ago

More wild speculation:

  1. Patterns make brain release happiness hormones, because it rewards itself for correctly guessing how the pattern continues. The rewards stop when the pattern is overly repetitive, because the brain recognizes that this isn't a challenge to guess correctly. And then it also quickly becomes not worth paying attention to, because if it's not going to change, it's irrelevant to our continued survival and all.
  2. This applies to anything where humans perceive beauty. A painting with a consistent color scheme or technique is nice, but just a blue canvas is pretty boring. A poem that rhymes is nice, but if it rhymes twice or thrice by using precisely the same device, then it doesn't entice.