How is silence different from noise?

has millions. but will start with my theory that intuition is really just people being psychic and refusing to accept or believe it

I think that is the same as saying, If I scream and nobody is around, does it make a sound to the outside world?

DevinRay: First, what is the outside world?

Second if people are around what makes the scream relevant?

The outside world is everyone else. It makes it relevant because it institutes that the scream was made in teh first place.

That is just a start.

And if nobody cares?

Let me posit a scenario that you scream, but the outside world is used to screaming.

If nobody cares, the sound still breaks their eardrums, due to them being used to it, nobody comes to the rescue.

You are constantly surrounded by this, so no one notices because your scream is just like all the others.

How is that scream then comparable to say the fan on your computer turning on?

The decibel por surpesto.

In other words, what does your scream mean?

Screams can have all sorts of meanings.

You can scream in fear, or a scream of joy. Either way, if no one hears it, whats to say that it doesn't

exist to anybody but you in the first place.

Now take the idea of the scream and use it as a metaphor for social noise. The kind of activism of a political movement.

What does this say about them?

The same, if nobody shows up to the political movement to hear them speak,

are their opinions really self evident?

So I ask again, how is noise different from sound?

Would you say that sound is that which is heard and paid attention to?

Opposite really. Noise is useless, sound is needed.

Useless or not used?

I would say useless, because we do use it. If you see a person screaming like an idiot ( making useless noise)

are you going to give them the attention they long for?

But to the person screaming, it's not useless. It might not be effective, but it's not useless.

Well, if you think about it, it is useless, just because it isn't helping them out at all.

It isn't Jermaine to what is going on in the point of time.

that Nothing is completely useless.

You may have a point there, but does that stop us from thinking that it IS useless, even though it isn't?

Once we start thinking about something, then it becomes a matter of perception, no?

So it's how we perceive the noise that makes/not makes it sound.

How do you perceive the noise?

by perceive, I mean how we (as those who hear it) interpret and react to it.

What is your interpretation of sound?

To you, is it useless, or completely necessary?

Sound is not necessary, so much as it is noise we give meaning through our attention/energy.

So a homeless person, who has no energy to carry on makes a sound to live, is it not necessary then?

It can be necessary but that does not mean it *is* necessary.

We assume that sound and noise are necessary because we have not experienced true silence.

How do we know when the time comes for it to be necessary?

And here when I say sound and noise I'm speaking in a broader sense of that which we interact with. The mental experience of say the senses.

visual noise, the difference between things we just glaze over and things we actually look at.

Why does it need to be necessary?

Or, I could say, is anything ever actually vital or needed?

As far as I'm concerned, this whole update is just noise interrupting my regularly scheduled plurking.

the_author: I hate you sometimes.

Hahaha, no you don't. I saw you laughing.

What if it is vital like a human needs food to survive? @ TheMagician this goes back to our whole thing

whose to say you really need your sound on for this to interrupt you?

Exactly, which is why I made that distinction about using sound as broader than just "that which we hear"

But my question has yet to be answered. If no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?

It depends on what you think a sound is.

it the physical property of a wave through a medium created by a movement? Then yes.

If it is instead a social property, then the answer is still yes.

But has that been proven to be true, or is that just thrust into our heads at our local high school?

Actually, I correct myself, it is not always yes.

Sometimes then it is just noise.

To make change it from noise to sound means we must give it meaning of some kind, which means someone must hear it.

How are we for certain a noise from sound? Is your so called "waves" different?

I'm making the distinction so we have a way to differentiate the two kinds of properties of that which is "heard."

Other people could very well use it in the reverse.

I'm referring to two different things, that which we attend to (the sound) versus that which goes to the background (noise) and these are

not fixed positions.

Depending on how it gets used, a sound can become a noise and a noise a sound.

So what you're saying is, a sound is like someone speaking to you, and noise is just the rest of the world

Car alarms, horns, gunshots and what not?

Essentially, though depending on what you listen to (what you care to give your attention) that could shift.

There are many times (and many people) whose speaking I consider noise because quite frankly, I don't care.

Correct same here, like when you're listening to music and you don't care about the rest of the world

Everything else is then just unnecessary noise.

But even the music can become noise. Have you ever gotten so busy you forgot you had music in?

No never. I don't usually listen to music unless I'm devoted.

Not even while walking or studying?

I only listen to music while I'm walking. Or playing it. I find I'm more devoted to listening to music while taking a long walk.