I started reading Brian Moore, "An Introduction to the Psychology of
Hearing." Let me make one observation related to reductionism.

We could model the ear/brain combination as a cascade of systems in
which signals propagate one direction. That would simplify things
enormously-- if one stage cannot detect a difference in signals (change
is below the noise) then no signal of the difference could be
propagated to higher stages.

But according to what I've read so far, signals travel both directions.
The books says that the outer hair cells have a motor function which
is "partly under control of higher centers of the auditory system."

In other words, if we investigate the behavior of the cochlea, we can't
isolate it from the behavior of the higher centers.

I'm not making any specific claims here about how this affects the
audibility of cables, but can we agree that it would be reductionist to
model the ear as a unidirectional cascade of stages? Why or why not?

-Mike