It’s a room, built by Microsoft, and it literally will drive you crazy.
It has no sound. NONE! At all. And it’s the quietest place on earth.
It’s called, Building 87, in Redmond, Washington. And the describe as “where sound goes to die”. This research lab, sealed in six concrete layers, is officially the quietest place according to the Guinness World Records (2015).
Used for audio testing (your Xbox games), it’s actually a anechoic chamber (no echo), insulated, that absorbs all sound vibrations and waves.
This chamber has surfaces that are lined with clusters of foam wedges. The floor is steel cables knitted together like a trampoline. And the doors are sealed to keep any noise out.
Microsoft says “The quietest sound theorized by mathematicians is Brownian motion – the movement of particles in a gas or liquid. The next step would be a vacuum, like space, with a complete absence of sound. The sound floor in Microsoft’s anechoic chamber is closer to Brownian motion than it is to even other anechoic chambers. It has the lowest sound ever recorded and is the optimal environment for audio testing.”
This room is so quiet, the longest anybody has been able to bear it is for barely an hour.
When it’s quiet, your ears will adapt to the negative decibels. The more things you hear. Like your own heart beating, your lungs moving, blood flowing in your veins, your bones grinding together…
The lowest decibel the average human ear can hear is zero decibels. This room measures at -9.4 decibels.
In other words, you become the sound.
Peaceful? NO! Within minutes you become uncomfortable… And soon, it will drive you mad.
Would you stay in this room? For a couple of minutes? An hour? Or maybe, the rest of your life.
