Welcome to the sound of nothing. This is the very first post about nothing at all. The sound of nothing is a place you come to when you want to read about nothing at all while hearing nothing at all, just an aimless set of words describing the nothingness that encompasses nothing.
Down the line, we may start to discuss nothing as an entity, a sound, a negative and so forth, in relation to science and perhaps the universe as a whole. After all, we theorize that everything that is now something had to come from nothing at all, and skeptics and conspiracy theorists alike debate on this topic to the infinite extremes.
Which brings me to another question, does infinity lead to nothing? Is nothing part of infinity? Can nothing be measured according sound? Can we hear nothing at all and differentiate it from silence? If so, is it really nothing, or is it just anti-matter? Maybe none of this even makes sense, which is why this post is about nothing.
But we do wonder, does nothing really have a sound? According to filmsound.org, “The sound of nothing is hard to convey by itself. It is best accomplished by contrasting it with the sounds of something that suddenly go away. The more the contrast, either in volume, density, or variety of sounds that completely go away when you enter the room, the greater the sense of emptiness and isolation.”
This poses a few questions. Can nothing be measured when it is against something, or shouldn’t it be measured against some more nothing? After all, nothing is everywhere, and nothing is more than just one thing. There are many types of nothing. We call that which is empty nothing, and we see emptiness as nothing. We consider some people that we hate, nothing to us. Can we measure nothing against a person who means nothing to us? That is the ultimate question, and it surely means nothing.
But now let’s address the actual sound of nothing. Is it really nothing that you hear? Because even in a completely silent setting, you as the listener create sounds. You’ll hear the peristalsis (muscle-made movement) of food in your digestive tract, saliva slurping, air entering and exiting your lungs, and a faint, high-pitched whine caused by neural activity in your ears. You may occasionally even hear yourself blink! Particularly when you realize how much noise your little meat machine is constantly producing, anechoic rooms are really weird. You’d be shocked at how many of these noises get through your body and into your ears, even if you’re wearing highly isolating headphones.
What if you wished the sound of nothing was louder? Then you would have tinnitus and soon wish the sound of nothing was quieter.
Can nothing be better than something?
Nothingness has an underappreciated sound. I’m not referring to noise. Noise is invasive and unhealthy. It includes the roar of the motorway, voices on the street, and the buzz of electricity. You can’t ignore it, and if you think your brain doesn’t have to work harder to process it, you’re being naive. No, I’m referring to the sound of silence. The wind is making that noise, swirling around your ears. It has the sound of an expanse, of a wonderful unknown, and it is reminiscent of a late summer afternoon with the sun settling down. It’s the sound of a break from the hectic period to which we are all accustomed. Perhaps since you’ve never heard it before, it worries you.
Perhaps you’re so accustomed to being surrounded by noise that you have no idea what noises even are. Sometimes you need to go so that you can breathe out all the noise and take in the silence. Maybe that potion will be better for your soul. See? You never gave yourself the chance to hear nothing because you didn’t even know how to listen. And perhaps you’ll discover vast universes in the emptiness when you hear nothing for the first time, I mean truly hear it.
The sound of nothing I presume would be like concentrated silence. It would be recordings made in some of the most remote areas of the world. The recordings would technically contain nothing, yet their timbre would add force and expression to any scene. Nothingness can be a powerful sound with many variations. When used properly, it could contain infinity and vastness, while also signifying constriction and quietude.