The Sound of Silence?

In this modern society, do we really know what silence is? What a complete lack of sound feels like?

This thought stemmed tonight when I decided to not listen to a podcast before I went to sleep, which is something that's worked itself into my nightly repertoire, but I digress, I lie there listening to what a thought was complete silence as I thought about my love of sound and my hatred of lack there of.

Of most of the memories I remember as a small child, no matter how mundane, not one of them was lacking in a memorable sound. From the VCR rewinding, to the Sega Megadrive II playing it's 8 bit motor bike sounds, to Laura practicing the recorder for year 7 music class, those memories remain, and to this day I think it really made me hate a lack of sound, which lead to my musical obsession and love of sound experimenting and exploration, but that's another topic altogether.

My mind glazed over the words as I thought them in my head, 'God I hate silence', and then it hit me. This wasn't silence, I can still hear my external hard drive spinning and the hum of my computer speakers. The rustle of my pillow as my head moved, the springs in my mattress, I really was not in a state of silence.

Then that got me thinking, nowadays, with electrical humming and cars zooming by, how many of us know true silence, or just know the importance of silence? In the future, will silence only exist in recording studios  or a hypothetical concrete room 100 feet underground?

I don't have enough important things to think about.