I think that for a long time now, we've getawised the idea of silence along two tracks. There's the older religious track where people associate silence with meditation and being closer to God. And then on the other hand, you have commodified silence. We're certainly not going to get anywhere by just shouting, be quiet. I think rather than that, what we've got to begin doing is broadening people's sense of what silence can mean.
As decibel levels continue to rise, threatening human existence we turn to two listening experts for help. George Prochnik and George Foy both investigate listening, silence and noise.