<p>^^^^
Not here in the nation’s capital. Overhead jet cover 24/7 after 9/11. IT was eerie when they stopped.</p>
<p>He could consider moving north to Canada. With a somewhat larger land mass, but 1/10th of the US population we have no shortage of silence I guess. I can spend a long weekend in the summer on this island we have cabin on, and not run into another human being or hear a mechanical noise. It never occurred to me that this was somehow rare.</p>
<p>Nature isn’t exactly quiet, is he saying that there are different qualities in “natural” noise, that it impacts our brains and bodies differently? Being at the seashore can be very noisy but I find the sound soothing, and others must too judging from the clock radios with the “seashore” setting.</p>
<p>I love this from Thoreau: “It takes a man to make a room silent.”</p>
<p>I was remembering my nights where I tried to sleep in the amazonian rainforest. Ha Ha! An incredible nightly orchestra.</p>
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<p>I find that I can sense someone in a room, even if the person isn’t making a sound.</p>
<p>I don’t know - I have experienced quiet (to my ears at least). I’ve walked the beach at the break of dawn and there is nothing but the sound of waves and yes it is stunning. However, there might have been a car driving in the far distance, but I didn’t hear it - to me - that was my silence.</p>
<p>Maybe true natural silence is hard to find, but I will settle for some good old fashioned peace and quiet! In my old NJ home, the bane of my existence was the near constant drone of leaf blowers. You could hardly enjoy a walk around the block because landscapers were always blowing crap into the air: grass all summer, leaves all fall, snow all winter. Much less of that going on around here, even in a subdivision. We were also very sensitive to highway noise, but in spite of our caution at certain times of the day we hear the roar of traffic from I-77. But other times it is strangely quiet. Those dang birds sure make a racket! :D</p>
<p>The silent place we live in rewards us with daytime bird chirping, middle of the night coyote howling, and perhaps once a day high altitude jets. A car noise is rare. We hear the sounds of the leathery aspen leaves ruffling as they quake, pine boughs rustling, the murmurs of hikers a quarter mile away. </p>
<p>DD has learned to appreciate the renewing energy of peace and quiet when she is on college break, but within days misses the urban bustle. However, her world brings it’s own 24/7 cacophony of beeps, tunes, and buzzes of texts, calls, and emails.</p>
<p>Our old refrigerator was very noisy and yet, I never really noticed it. Now we have a brand, new, energy efficient one that is “quiet”, yet I constantly notice the sounds it makes. I wonder how long it will take before I no longer hear it?</p>
<p>I agree with those recognize that nature is not silent. Even, or especially, the wind in the trees can be very noisy. We needed to keep windows closed at our condo or be awakened by the very loud sounds of many birds at around 4 in the morning- long before daylight. I do not consider a woodpecker tapping on a tree any less noisy than a human making a similar sound. Sometimes I think some people need to remember than the human species is also as much a part of nature as any other.</p>
<p>Well, again, the writer does not say that nature is silent.</p>
<p>As far as humans being part of nature, sure. Human sounds are natural sounds. But are mechanical sounds human sounds?</p>
<p>That’s a great question. Technology is anything that is from the natural world that has been manipulated by humankind to create something new. Is a violin natural sound? Is a violin any different than a saw? An engine, when my hard drive starts up, heels on cement? Aren’t they all part of the natural world because there can’t be anything on this planet made from somewhere else. Can there? I ask that question over and over.</p>
<p>Good questions. Of course, anything on this world is of this world. But does a qualitative, readily recognizable and identifiable change occur when we make something new? Does human mind somehow change the equation–since we can and do now make things that dn’t require our contact to make sounds (engines, saws, yes, violins.) Are there also qualitative differences between the technology of a beaver building a dam, or the drilling for oil to make plastic to make plastic rings to hold together the sixpack that when carelessly thrown away strangles said beaver?</p>
<p>My answer would be yes, we’ve thought ourselves away from nature in the usual sense, but I do recognize that this is a personal answer, not easily proveable.</p>
<p>Getting away from all things electrical is a relief for me. Bird sound, wind, crickets (loud!) are all present, but when you’re out camping or hiking and the stillness comes in between the crackles of the fire…and there’s no background hum of the grid, well, that’s healing time for me.</p>
<p>Then again I’m getting into that age bracket where me own ears make noises. Too much loud rock and roll =).</p>
<p>Ha, Ha! me too. 
Not fair. I spent years in the country but then a few watching Janice J. and crew.</p>