wouldn't it be nice...

[susie_flo]

...if scientists were to invent a gadge that could 'play' silence?  (Where you cuold press play and immediately your speakers or headphones emit nothing but glorious silence, blocking out any ambient noise?)

I know there are earplugs and the like... but it's not the same, cos they give you a sort of ear-poppy sensation.  What  I would like is something that acts as a sound barrier before the noise even gets to your ears.  So that it just feels like being in a quiet room.

Even better if it could be clever enough to block noise from localised directions (e.g. so that you could listen to music or the noise coming from out of the TV, while simultaneously blocking the noise coming from the washing machine's spin cycle down the corridor...)

A few years ago I saw something on a documentary that suggested such things were in development... (something along the lines of bouncing sound back the way it came) but that was yonks ago and still I have no gadge.

(I suspect once such a thing is invented, it wlll get banned for health and safety reasons...   due to hundreds of people being getting run over while playing 'silence' on their headphones...  or being stabbed for blocking out the localised sound of their partner's outraged voices.)

Comments

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

You could play a white noise MP3 in your earphones on constant repeat; in theory your branes will tune it out before too long and will have the effect of being interpreted as silence. I know at least one person who does this when reading, and although his partner hasn't stabbed him yet that could just be luck.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Playing white noise at myself sounds like a peculiar form of torture... but maybe it would work!

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

I'd like a remote control mute button for certain people.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that would be my dream come true.

Mia-Oia once mentioned that her ideal superpower would be to have a pointy finger that makes people shut up, and I had to concur.

(I also rather like the idea of being able to magic up a concealed trap door whenever people start to become annoying.)