A Note on Energy in Communication.

I’m currently considering the question of the part played by energy in the process of communication. When we speak to somebody we take an abstract concept which we call meaning and convert it into sound. That sound is a form of energy which travels through space and has a physical effect on the listener’s eardrum. The listener’s brain then converts that energy back into meaning using a pre-conceived algorithm called language, and voila: we have communication. So now I have three questions:

1. What happens to the sound energy, given that it carries meaning which most sound energy doesn’t? Does it lose the component of meaning and simply dissipate or not?

2. Another form of sound energy which carries meaning is music. Does this explain why music is often referred to as ‘the universal language’, in which case how was the algorithm designed since it clearly isn’t constructed by human artifice?

3. Is there any energy involved when communication is made via the written word? If not, does it mean that storytelling is more powerful than writing?

If I come to any conclusions I’ll let you know, but I doubt I will. I’m not clever enough. And I expect scientists and musicologists already know the answer because they went to university and I didn’t.