Why silence?

[Ellsworth]

What are all the possible reasons that Microsoft built the two quietest rooms on the planet,
about 2000 miles apart?


Edited to add:

To sound less sinister, here are two guesses, faster than light communication, density stands for distance and autism 'grounding' / therapy rooms.

Apparently the effects of the room are substantial upon the human body. IIRC the max time allowed in the room is 15 minutes for people, 20 minutes for reporters (that's not my joke, that's real), and 45 min max before there's some serious negative consequences for experiencing the silence.


AFAIK you can sign up for a 15 minute visit.

Edited to add:
The very description sets the bias.

They are not rooms of 'silence,' they are rooms without movement.
No waves.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/anechoic-chamber-worlds-quietest-room/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170526-inside-the-quietest-place-on-earth

[donjuedo]

Speaking of silence, ...

before I bought a piece of forest, I'd been camping before, always in a campground of some kind. I never expected those to be silent, but I was focused on the sounds of humans. Then a few years ago, I camped on my land, alone. What genuinely surprised me was all the"noise". The wind rustles through the trees, and the creeks babble softly. Add the squirrels skittering across the leaf litter, then add owls and birds, both singing in the morning and sounding different at night. It's non-stop, and I never really listened like that before. Nice? Yes. But silent? Not even close.

[Shark]

There was a room like that at the university of Saskatchewan, we got to go check it out one time.

It was really neat because you could hear/not hear the standing waves and cancellations as you moved on front of a speaker.

Definitely wouldn't want to spend 30 minutes on there alone

jandjloghome.blogspot.com

[Ellsworth]

Because it's the closest to hearing the lack of sound in outer space, for a non-deaf person, that can be experienced on earth.
With some imagination, that could be awe inspiring.
Fuel for the reach, upward.

It's also the closest to what the earth might sound like, in places and at times, after a nuclear war.
When the wind settles down, with no birds in the air, no trees, no insects.
Just miles and miles of sterile dirt.
And silence, the sound of Civilization's failure.

I can imagine either of the things above, driving/nurturing a sense of purpose.