Silence and the Notion of the Commons

Abstract

In a technological world where the acoustic environment is largely artificial, silence takes on new dimensions, be it in terms of the human need for silence (perhaps a person’s right to be free of acoustic assaults), in terms of communication, or as the intentional modification of the environment.

This discussion consists of two separate but interrelated parts: 1) Silence as Spiritual Experience, drawing largely but not exclusively on the Quaker tradition of religious worship, and 2) Silence as a Common Good. The notion of silence will be examined in terms of the general patterns of the social impact of modern technology. Silence possesses striking similarities with those aspects of life and community such as unpolluted water, air or soil, that were once taken as normal and given, but have become special and precious in technologically mediated environments.