Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparrow
Is there noise in the external world, or is reality silent?
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Interesting question, since noise — in the sense of an auditory experience — is a perception, and perceptions only exist when there is a mind to perceive them. That sounds like something Berkeley might have said, but how else could the thought be expressed? Surely the collisions of molecules, the interactions of sub-atomic particles, and the fluctuations of sound waves all occur regardless of whether an observer is present (unless perhaps one fully subscribes to the most radical aspects of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, i.e. "Does the moon only exist when someone is looking at it?"), but unless there is a mind physically wired to the proper mechanical apparatus to receive and interpret sound waves, "noise" in the sense of an auditory phenomenon has no meaning.