The Silent Guardian

Active Denial System

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You could have heard a pin drop.

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For the next 17 minutes, I spoke about the silence around us, but I also talked about something that is even more important to me: That same evening, I went to a pub with a few of them. Inside the draughty entrance, each of us with a pint of beer, it was all more or less exactly the same as my student days. Kind, curious people, a humming atmosphere, interesting conversations.

Why is it more important now than ever? That evening meant a lot to me, and not only for the good company. Thanks to the students, I realised how little I understood.

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They became an obsession. My children hardly pause any more. They are always accessible, and almost always busy.

The three of them tend to sit in front of a screen — whether alone or together with others. I do it too. Become engulfed in my smartphone, enslave myself to my own tablet — as a consumer and at times as a producer. I am constantly interrupted, interruptions engendered by other interruptions.

I rummage around in a world that has little to do with me. It feels like trying to find your way through fog on a mountain, without a compass at hand, and ending up walking around in circles.

The goal is to be busy and effective, nothing else. It is easy to assume that the essence of technology is technology itself, but that is wrong. The essence is you and me. The central issue is rather, as Heidegger pointed out, that: To achieve nearness, we must, according to Heidegger, relate to the truth, not to technology.

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Having tried my hand at internet dating, I am inclined to agree with Heidegger. Of course, Heidegger could not have predicted the possibilities offered by current technology.

He was thinking about cars of 50 horsepower, film projectors and punch-card machines, which were all the rage. But he had an inkling of what might come. We are going to give up our own freedom in our eagerness to use new technology, Heidegger claimed. To shift from being free people to becoming resources. The thought is even more fitting now than when he first expressed it.

We will not become a resource for one another, unfortunately, but for something less appealing. A resource for organisations such as Apple, Facebook , Instagram, Google, Snapchat and governments who are trying to map us all out, with our voluntary assistance, to use or sell the information. It smacks of exploitation. The question that Humpty Dumpty poses to Alice remains: Humans are social creatures.

Being accessible can be a good thing.

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We are unable to function alone. The alternative is to not think anything at all. You may call this meditation, yoga, mindfulness or merely common sense. It can be good. I take pleasure in meditating and practising yoga. That also works well.

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I lie there hovering a couple of centimetres above my bed each afternoon. I find myself thinking about how silence can be experienced without the use of techniques. There is a certain intimacy inherent in being silent with other people — we usually do so only with those closest to us.

So there is something almost radical about the recent trend for enjoying silence with strangers. Readers bring their books and meet in a bar, where they read together in silence for an hour or sometimes two, then put the books away to chat and have a drink. The concept began in the dimly lit, retro-furnished cafes and bars of Seattle. However, there is something special about sharing that silence with others. It offers an opportunity for escapism; everyone is so busy with work and with technology being ever present.

An event like this gives people the opportunity to escape these things for a while. While the readings are now tranquil and relaxed, Mariel concedes initial iterations were a little awkward.

This discomfort is precisely where the radical power of silence lies, says Matthew Adams, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Brighton. Adams has a long-term interest in the social, cultural and psychological significance of silence, and particularly in shared silence and electing to share silence. It confronts us with what it feels like to be in the physical presence of other human beings without any games, strategies, reading or misreading of intentions. It is a temporary suspension of our reliance on talk.

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The absence of chatter can have social advantages. Then comes a somewhat standard speed-dating set-up; attendees are paired off for a limited window of time, communicating only with gestures, before engaging in 60 seconds of uninterrupted eye contact. Honi Ryan is an artist based in Berlin who began hosting silent dinners back in An otherwise ordinary dinner party setup, albeit with a ritzy vegan menu regular dishes include baked almond soy mushrooms and Lebanese beans , the rules of the dinner are: The global reach is fundamental to the project, as is the inclusive and international menu.

Perhaps the most well-known silent social is the silent retreat. Recently featured in an episode of BBC comedy Fleabag, silent retreats vary in tone and purpose, and are more popular than you might imagine. The retreats often have a religious or spiritual element, with Buddhist, Christian and Catholic retreats making up the majority. They can last anywhere between a couple of days to a few weeks, set in locations that are usually fittingly pastoral, in old farm buildings or country piles.

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