Have you heard of this product called PlaneQuiet Active Noise Canceling Headphones? I don’t own one and I’ve never tried it but I love the idea. They are headphones that cancel noise. They provide silence or, better, anti-noise.

We are designed to close our eyes. But we can’t close our ears. I wonder what kind of thinking that is? Perhaps, in the beginning, there was too much to see but not much to hear. Well this product is the prototype for ear-lids. I’m no scientist but it works something like this. On the headset, a microphone picks up all the noise and filters then reverses it. Fascinating.

Science and technology will of course work diligently to make the whole business faster, stronger, and smaller. Think about the potential this has. Not just to block out cabin noise in aircrafts. On the bus when too many people are talking: Zap, silence. On public transit. In meetings at work. At school. When you wake up in the morning with a hangover. Talking to your parents. At a child’s birthday party.

I know people who wear headphones just to put off salespeople, lost commuters, and cigarette beggars. They don’t play music and they can hear perfectly fine but wearing headphones they can ignore undesirables with the pretence that they can’t hear. These gizmos make that one step better. You actually can’t hear. A black hole for white noise.

And as technology expands even more uses: A CD that plays on your stereo that absorbs and counters all ambient noise. A switch on your air conditioner. Remote controls, mostly for burglar types, that would allow them to burgle on mute. A lover that talks too much, silenced. Your haranguing mother, silenced. Life with a mute button. It’s about time.

SS