Ummm, look what we can't do...

Awhile ago, I wrote about how innovative the human race can be, illustrating my point with the space race. It seemed to me that we could conquer any challenge, given the right incentive and manpower. But it appears that there are some results that modern technology is unable to produce, even though our ancestors with their crude instruments could.

There was an interesting piece in the Washington Post about an experiment with Joshua Bell, who is an amazing violinist (if you have never seen the Red Violin, put it in your Netflix queue immediately). Basically they had him play in a metro station during rush hour to see whether anyone would notice. And how many people would actually stop and listen. Anyway, it is interesting seeing how people react, but what really grabbed my eye in the article was the following passage:

Bell always performs on the same instrument, and he ruled out using another for this gig. Called the Gibson ex Huberman, it was handcrafted in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari during the Italian master's "golden period," toward the end of his career, when he had access to the finest spruce, maple and willow, and when his technique had been refined to perfection.
"Our knowledge of acoustics is still incomplete," Bell said, "but he, he just . . . knew."
Bell doesn't mention Stradivari by name. Just "he." When the violinist shows his Strad to people, he holds the instrument gingerly by its neck, resting it on a knee. "He made this to perfect thickness at all parts," Bell says, pivoting it. "If you shaved off a millimeter of wood at any point, it would totally imbalance the sound." No violins sound as wonderful as Strads from the 1710s, still.
The front of Bell's violin is in nearly perfect condition, with a deep, rich grain and luster. The back is a mess, its dark reddish finish bleeding away into a flatter, lighter shade and finally, in one section, to bare wood.
"This has never been refinished," Bell said. "That's his original varnish. People attribute aspects of the sound to the varnish. Each maker had his own secret formula." Stradivari is thought to have made his from an ingeniously balanced cocktail of honey, egg whites and gum arabic from sub-Saharan trees.

Basically the point is that this guy from the 18th century made violins with a sound richer, more brilliant than any that could be assembled today. And no one has any idea what makes his better. Strad took shits in a bedpan or in a big hole, sure. He couldn't work a microwave. He didn't have any electronic gauges, didn't know the physics of soundwaves. But the man knew the acoustics of a violin better than any person before his time and since. And it's not like we don't have access to the instruments that he made. Wiki estimates that there are 650 left. Although not so many violins from his best period. Shouldn't we be able to take the sucker apart atom by atom and figure out Strad's secret sauce?

For all our technological advancements, I guess we still have a ways to go.