system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What are we "hearing" when the silence is deafening?

If you are in a very quiet place with no background noise, you can "hear" the silence.  What is happening?
gpt
You are always hearing sounds. Silence is merely a concept and aesthetic of our sound environment. Even in an anechoic chamber (the quietest places on earth) you can still hear the sound of you body; circulatory system, nervous system, breathing, etc. Your ears are always on, and you are always hearing, even if it isn't attentive and focused listening.

Essentially what you hear in a very quiet space is sometimes called the noise floor and is a composite of all the subtle sound characteristics of a given space. This includes things like natural echo/reverb, lo fidelity noises (such as loud distant sounds that filter through walls), and very quiet local sounds (such as water pipes, central air/heat, a breeze).

I am a composer and study acoustic ecology, primarily the works of R. Murray Schafer, John Cage, and many others who have theorized on sound and silence and the world around us.