Hi everyone,
Let’s imagine a world where language does not exist. No one speaks. Our thoughts are not in words. There is absolute silence. Can we bear with it? I know I can’t.
We humans need some noise (not the bad city kind of noise). Maybe this gives us a feeling that we are not alone. After all, we are community creatures. We need people so we can feel safe and protected. The noise made by our loved ones around serves as a signal that there are people who protect us.
The rise of the modern life style, however, is pushing us towards a direction where we go against our natural community instincts. Now, more people are alone than ever. Some of us because of work, some of us because of other conflicts. Whatever the reason, there are a lot more people setting up a new life away from everyone they know.
Are we able to escape this instinct though? I believe this instinct is too strong to go away in a few generations. Rather, when we are alone and there is no voice around, we resort to things that make noise. The TV in many homes is on even if no one is watching it. Especially if there is only one person living in that home. We turn on the TV because we need the noise to feel we are not alone. Some people also walk with headphones in ears to compensate for the lack of a person to walk with. If there was a person, we would chat and walk. If there is not, then we need some noise. So why not ask a machine to do it?
Are these compensation strategies working? I don’t know. I don’t think so. At least not for our generations because this is probably too new for the human species. What will happen with future generations? Maybe their brain will adapt to the change and will take machine noise as a default safety signal. But maybe it will not.
What do you think? Are we trying to compensate lack of actual human voice with virtual voices so as not to feel that there is no one around us? Do you use any other strategies? Let’s chat about the important of noise.