As new sounds appear, many familiar ones vanish
Heard anything interesting lately? That’s an old line, certainly, but one that has a bit of significance; think about how many sounds there are in the world. Millions? Billions? In among all those sounds are ones that appear – and disappear daily. There are things you can hear today that your grandparents never dreamed of when they were kids. For example:
* Cell phone ring tones
* The clarity of recorded music
* The incessant dings, beeps, buzzers, tweets and more of all the electronics that surround us
* Cars that speak
* Computer sounds: Windows and other operating system sounds, mail box sounds, saving, deleting, and recover sounds… well, you see where I’m going with this one. I could write three columns on my computer and its various operating systems sounds (or noises depending on your point of view, I suppose)
* The sound of a baby’s cry through a monitor
* The sound of wind blowing on Mars
* Watches that speak
* That unique ring…from the front door…of a doll house
* The sound of a news broadcast from a phone
* The sound of a hundred different kinds of music from a phone
* The sound of a TV show or movie from, yep, a phone
Disappearing sounds
Just as importantly as new sounds is the fact that there are also many sounds that are disappearing or are disappearing as live sounds. We may have recordings of some of them but the live sounds are flitting away. Consider just a few of these disappearing sounds:
* The scratch and hiss of records being played on a record player
* The jingle of coins being fed into a pay phone
* The unique sound of a portable Byrd respirator as it helped someone breathe
* The bells inside of an old black phone with a dial
* The unique and irreplaceable sounds from animals that disappear from earth as those animals become extinct. Speaking of disappearing and no longer existent animal sounds here are just three quick info bits:
A) “7,725 animals of all types (including) over 190 species of birds have become extinct, and this rate of extinction seems to be increasing” independent.co.uk
B) “Human beings are currently causing the greatest mass extinction of species since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. If present trends continue one half of all species of life on earth will be extinct in less than 100 years, as a result of habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, and climate change.” David Ulansey is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco
C) “The Yangtze river dolphin, until recently one of the most endangered species on the planet, has been declared officially extinct following an intensive survey of its natural habitat. The freshwater marine mammal, which could grow to eight feet long and weigh up to a quarter of a ton, is the first large vertebrate forced to extinction by human activity in 50 years, and only the fourth time an entire evolutionary line of mammals has vanished from the face of the Earth since the year 1500.” guardian.co.uk
Wouldn’t it have been lonely to be the last Yangtze River dolphin? You would probably keep searching for a mate, a familiar sound, but nothing would ever vocalize back.
The wonderful sounds
So what is the best sound do you suppose? I imagine that it all depends on the listener and circumstances. One universal “good” sound seems to be the laughter of children. But there are many people out there who would disagree with that and who think that the best sound is the sound of one hand clapping. They’re wrong.
The pure, clear, uninhibited sound of a child laughing does seem to be a near-universal joyful sound. It cuts across cultures, races, languages, ethnicities, religions, place and time. That particular laughter is infectious, can bring smiles out, can make us forget – if only for a moment – some of the darkest pain. Here in no particular order, are a few other really great sounds:
Popcorn popping
Ice cold water (or other drink of choice) being poured over ice
Something frying in a skillet
Snow falling (listen carefully)
A storm
Waves gently lapping up on shore
A baby sleeping
People screaming, laughing, talking at a fair
The school dismissal bell
An engine starting on a very cold, wintery morning
Someone saying “I love you”
And with that I’ll leave you with the sound of good night.
Still Amazed 