Shhhh.

[DantesInferno]

Do you think quiet exists anymore?

I find that we can't even be quiet within ourselves. We have too many things weighing on our mind, on our hearts, so that a moment of perfect silence inside is damn near impossible. We cannot find a place where there is just silence. There's always a radio, or a nearby car, or people talking to each other as they walk alongside the road. Even the Internet is often louder than real life. Take a look through AF and there hundreds of people making themselves heard, some louder than others, but sometimes it's overwhelming.

So, what do you think? Have we made quiet extinct?

[YogsVR4]

I would argue the premise that quiet ever existed. I think people mistake noise they want to hear as being quiet and all others to just being noise.

[DVSNCYNIKL]

Sound or noise is everywhere. It's just which ones you choose to listen to that overwhelm people sometimes.

[fritz_269]

Originally posted by YogsVR4
I would argue the premise that quiet ever existed. I think people mistake noise they want to hear as being quiet and all others to just being noise.

I like this. Well said. :smoker2:

[SickLude]

that is right. silence never really existed, its just that in our minds, when we get that quietness once every 4 days, it seems silent. silence is good though. i bet we all wish we could have more of it. i know i do.

[1989 DX R]

Quiet is the absence of sound. Sound has a frequency, and, there are many frequencies our ears cannot detect. I think that it is theoretically possible for absolute quiet to exist, but not in the real world. I dont know for sure.

[fritz_269]

Originally posted by 1989 DX R
Quiet is the absence of sound. Sound has a frequency, and, there are many frequencies our ears cannot detect. I think that it is theoretically possible for absolute quiet to exist, but not in the real world. I dont know for sure.

Not much sound in a vaccum. The Moon for instance. But you certainly can't exist in a vaccum either.

What about people who are completely and utterly deaf? And are we talking just about audible noise, or visual, emotional, intellectual noise too?

[1989 DX R]

hmm, yes, but i think because of the frequencies that constitute sound are of a wide range, you get into a whole new can of worms...

Deaf...hmm, i have been told that there is a buzz, like speakers turned up really high with no music. Thats from a friend that went deaf at age 17.

[fritz_269]

Originally posted by 1989 DX R
hmm, yes, but i think because of the frequencies that constitute sound are of a wide range, you get into a whole new can of worms...

Hunh?

[1989 DX R]

Dont things like earthquakes and super low bass have frequencies that we cannot hear? I dunno, chalk that one up to a tired brain...

[ragt20]

well at this moment the only noise I can hear is the cooling fans in my PC...apart from that it is as quiet as it can be round here......specially as our house is directly under the flight path to the airport..........you can't hear yourself think when concorde passes

[Moppie]

Originally posted by ragt20
you can't hear yourself think when concorde passes

Just as long as it goes over the house and dosnt try and come through it.


If your talking about a complete physical silence then of course its possibly, but does require some work to achieve.
A complete Metal silence might however be a differnt thing altogther.
After all if your aware that your not thinking then your actualy have a thought. So the only way to achieve total mental silence is to be brian dead. (or very unconsiece).
Emotional Silence requires something else again, To be at piece with ones own emotional and psychological make up, and to accpet who we are in this world could be considered emotinal silence.

[AEstud]

do not let your circumstances and/or situation dictate how you live your life or how much stress you let get to you. It's all in what you decide to let bother you.....you can have silence, but its up to you:bandit:

[JD@af]

I believe silence, outside of the confines of a laboratory or other state-of-the-art soundproofed enclosure, is impossible to achieve, at least on earth. I think this simply because there are too many sources of vibrations that cause sound or noise, and there is no absence in matter, which is ubiquitous, and tramsmits sound, at one volume or another, so therefore there is sound literally everywhere. Our perception of silence is probably tainted by what we have grown to conceive as being silence, i.e. a significant drop in volume in the world around us. To experience true silence, one would have to experience it in a vacuum, a space completely devoid of matter. After squelching the ability for matter transmit the vibrations of movement around you, you've got yourself silence.

On a similar note, most people have never experienced complete darkness, either. This requires being in an environment completely devoid of light, and we don't get anything remotely close to that when the sun goes down each day. My friend, who has been spelunking, described being in a cave far beneath the surface of the earth, picking a safe spot, and switching off his head lamp. Like true silence, that will be an experience worth seeking.