One of the things that struck me in Tokyo was that high-rise construction (and there’s a lot of it) uniformly had sound barriers constructed around it. It looked like just plywood with a canvas cover in most cases, so nothing heavy or fancy. And then, prominently displayed at the top of the barrier, was a digital decibel meter, with the limit clearly painted alongside.<p>After being driven from no less than three apartments by jackhammers and construction, American arguments against noise regulation fall flat to me.
The absence of human-generated sound is not silence, it just means a baseline level of noise generated by nature, and those natural sounds actually may strike us as more intrusive than the peace and quiet of our own homes.<p>I always notice this when I go camping in the wilderness and take the headphones along. I listen to classical music and ECM jazz with huge dynamic range, and you need total silence in order to hear the pianissimo passages (it's not unusual for modern repertoire to have dynamic markings down to ppppp). But that total silence is really hard to find in nature where waves lap on rivers, birds chirp, the wind blows, etc. The man described in the linked article appreciates those natural sounds, but when I’m in the tent I would prefer to hear my music instead, and I miss my own home where I installed soundproofing and anti-reverb foam.
Some widely unknown analogy from the movies: Natural noises make the very best horror sounds for the non-expert moviegoer.<p>Natural wind or wave noises were introduced into modem horror movies by Kurosawa Kyioshi in the late 80ies, and had significant impact since, whilst Hollywood and elsewhere still use unnatural noises like screeches, cracks or the neverending Ridley Scott sirene from Aliens. Still in fashion, even if worn-out long time ago. Tenet had some new reverse sound effects, but still very noisy.<p>A Kurosawa horror movie is much more silent, but the ambient noise, used as enhanced athmo, is much more thrilling and horrific than the much louder screeches.<p>Natural silence can be horrific.