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I had to stop reading this article when it used the term "unnatural quiet". It is the noise that is unnatural, not the quiet. Ancient cities teemed with birds
by x3iv130f 4y ago
I had to stop reading this article when it used the term "unnatural quiet".
It is the noise that is unnatural, not the quiet.
Ancient cities teemed with birds and bird songs, so much so that birds were often featured heavily in their creative works.
See: https://aeon.co/essays/the-ancient-world-teemed-with-birds-now-we-think-with-them https://aeon.co/essays/the-ancient-world-teemed-with-birds-n...
Now, the artificial has intruded itself into the natural world. When I open the window of my urban apartment, the bird songs I hear have melodies like jackhammers and car alarms. The birds in cities now make the same sounds as the cities.
The natural world has adapted, and in doing so has become the same as the artificial.
- drewcoo 4y agohttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unnatural https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unnatural Words. People use them. They have different meanings.
- BuyMyBitcoins 4y agoYou can also use words to express your criticism in a more constructive way instead of being snarky and talking down to the GP like they are an imbecile.
- grayfaced 4y agoBirds here still mimic the 90s car alarm (You know the one that cycles between patterns every few seconds) even though I haven't heard that particular car alarm in at least a decade. How long will it take for birds to change that song? I'm near a military base and I've never heard birds take on the bugle songs that come over loudspeakers (e.g. revelry, taps). I've also never heard birds sing the Ice Cream truck song. What makes some certain sounds so impressionable on birds?
- Dalewyn 4y ago>What makes some certain sounds so impressionable on birds? I'd hazard a guess it's something similar to how some patterns of noise to us are music, while other patterns of noise are akin to nails screeching across blackboard. I don't know the science behind it, but if humans find appeal in certain noises then it won't surprise me if our peers upon this planet also do.
- _def 4y agoI'm not sure but to me it sounds like there is some similarity in how a bird modulates sounds and how primitive synthesizers do it, so I guess those sounds are easier to mimic or something
- Guthur 4y agoThere is nothing unnatural about our world, stop maintaining this anti human view point, are ants or termites unnatural for example? This view that humanity is evil is the true racism.
- BLKNSLVR 4y agoThere is an underlying anti-nature about the way humans are going about our expansion, however.
- Guthur 4y agoHow do you figure, is there some formalisation of what is anti nature? Or is it just some dream a hippy had on lsd at Woodstock? The world is constantly in flux, there used to be animals the size of houses roaming about and then there wasn't, were they not in tune with nature or something? This is all idealogical nonsense.
- BLKNSLVR 4y agoOr is it just some dream a hippy had on lsd at Woodstock? Let's not, hey? This is HN, one of the last bastions of meaningful discourse left on the Internet. Human activity didn't wipe out the animals the size of houses, which also means that the overall interdependent ecosystems back then weren't critical to human survival since there were no humans yet. Unlike today. The meteor and subsequent volcanic and tectonic activity were natural occurrences, without which humanity wouldn't be where it is today. I'm sure that humans can 'science' their way out of many of our potential existential problems, the question I wonder about is what does that cost future generations in terms of the natural wonders that all things "The Earth" has to offer. This, of course, is only tangible to those who value such things, so the argument falls flat against a backdrop of Wall-Street style career ambition which leaves little room for much else. My reading indicates that human activity is causing environmental damage that has the potential to cause human-society-as-we-know-it existential damage, and this is generally backed up facts about the changes we're seeing in nature - raw data, numbers, about the current state. What this means for the future is hotly debated and, like everyone says 'all models are wrong, some are useful', so, again, it depends on one's point of view as to what value is attributed to nature. One thing is inarguable, however, which is that human survival is dependent upon a certain level of a functional natural world.
- feet 4y agoYou may be shocked to learn that humans are natural. We and our behaviors are part of nature
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoThe sounds humans make are. The sounds our machines make are not.
- Dalewyn 4y agoIf the products of humans (who are natural) are not natural, then by the same token do you argue beaver dams and beehives are also unnatural/artificial constructs? If you ask me, everything on Earth including all products of humanity are natural. This distinction between natural and artificial is primarily based off of a human superiority complex, that humanity is special and superior and masters of this planet. I feel it would benefit all of us as a species to drop that attitude ASAP because it gets in the way of objective judgment.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoWhat would be unnatural then?
- Dalewyn 4y agoSomething that intrudes upon this universe from another universe, perhaps. Nothing that is a product of this universe, whether directly or indirectly, is unnatural. Everything is natural, from steel skyscrapers to beaver dams to beehives to planets and stars.
- dTal 4y agoClearly "natural" and "unnatural" denote categories that it is useful to distinguish between, or we would not have the words. What is to be accomplished by your attempt to redefine the concept into uselessness, apart from making it difficult to discuss environmental issues?