“We are saturated in sound. Showers play music. Elevators babel. Cell phones interrupt. The quiet chat in a bar is drowned out by the ball game on the television overhead. The long-distance runner is no longer lonely. He just has to Velcro an iPod to his arm for companionship. We can no longer live life in the rich countries without a soundtrack, mostly created by the gadgets and machines of our own making. “