Seems like many of us here like to read–forums, magazines, books, etc.–so why not a discussion about a single work? Yup, a book club.
Figured we’d start with something for those who don’t have a ton of time. It's an early work from a well-known name: “Silence Please,” a 1950 short sci-fi story by Arthur C. Clarke.
You can easily find it online, and things you’ll find inside: people, pubs and publishers.
After reading, we can discuss.
Thank you for joining GRM Book Club.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
The Fenton Silencer IIRC?
I found a free PDF easily. Excited to read it and chat about it.
Karacticus said:In reply to David S. Wallens :
The Fenton Silencer IIRC?
Yup.
Great suggestion! Fun story. I read it many years ago and it was great to read it again.
Not really a spoiler: I enjoyed the reference to Benjamin Britten, which I hadn't remembered from previous reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Britten
Should I be a big Debbie Downer and get into all the problems with the idea of the Fenton Silencer? Might as well 
Problem #1: The idea of the Fenton Silencer absorbing energy. That's not how it works, the energy gets turned into miniscule amounts of heat in the environment around the machine.
Next, the reasons we have active noise cancellation headphones that block out constant background noise but no Fenton Silencer today:
2. Targeting the output: Headphones don't need a targeting system because they're on your head pointed directly into your ears, a real Fenton Silencer would need to use an array of speakers and microphones and have a targeting system for listeners and would need to adjust speaker levels and probably also gimbal the speakers and mics to get the sound to where it needs to be.
3. Picking up the right inputs: This is why an array of microphones would be needed. Headphones with ANC use a mic right next to your head so it's picking up the sounds that need to be canceled right where they're arriving. If it's going to act on a room full of people who aren't wearing headphones, it has to know what each person is hearing and target the correct noise-canceling output at each person.
5. Frequency range: There are electronic and computational problems with blocking the higher frequencies where speech is for example, it requires faster computation, or for analog electronics, faster voltage fluctuations and electronics that react more quickly which is a whole different can of worms.
4. Timing: Today's ANC headphones use digital circuits to invert the wave and play it back in between the sound hitting the mic on the outside of the headphones and then getting into your ears on the inside, that takes a bit of time. When the relative locations of the mic, speaker, and the listener's ear are constant, that's straightforward enough. You can do this with an analog circuit as in the story but the problem is the same:
https://www.instructables.com/Analog-Noise-Cancelling-Headphones/
Now each listener has their own timing problem and every time a listener moves the timing changes. Making the Fenton Silencer with modern electronics and acoustics and the freedom to embed devices anywhere in a room would be hard enough, doing it with analog electronics would be totally impossible (mainly due to the problem of tracking the listeners, especially without markers). The closest thing you could make to a real Fenton silencer with analog electronics might be a big speaker that does something like today's ANC for maybe a few people standing in the right spot in front of the speaker. It could be rather loud for those not standing in the sweet spot.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Actually, some aircraft use active noise suppression in the cabin, but it's for a pretty targeted , lower frequency range, generally prop noise. Some even get clever and use a passive system that uses resonators to attenuate some portion of the noise.
Then, moving from sound to vibration frequencies, I believe there are active vibration suppression systems, typically used in helicopters to damp out some of the cyclic rotor induced vibration.
Sarah Young said:I found a free PDF easily. Excited to read it and chat about it.
I found one too, but there were some obvious transcription errors, and maybe some not so obvious ones? It seemed like there was a paragraph missing here or there.
A little more fun: How close could we get to a real Fenton Silencer today?
First, the hardware: Many aimable speakers and mics. Would probably have to be distributed around a room but it may be possible to put them all on one device.
Targeting software: OpenCV system to track the locations and orientations of all the listeners' heads. If the machine needs to work in different rooms rather than being built into the room, it will also need to laser-scan the room it's in to know the shape and dimensions.
Targeting hardware: Plenty of cameras, possibly also those LIDAR scanners for room shape.
Noise-cancelling hardware: super-fast ASICs rather than analog circuits or software on a general-purpose OS, this will maximize the frequency range. Will also need ASICs to handle mic blending on the input side. One of each of these ASICs will be needed per listener, this will be the limit on how many listeners it can affect.
Control software: This will need to use the OpenCV results to aim mics to sample what each listener is hearing, send those mic signals into the blending ASIC which then goes into the noise-cancelling ASIC, then aim speakers to get into each listener's ears with the sound coming out of that ASIC with the correct volume levels.
The targeting and control software will both need plenty of GPU/NPU power, both could run on one sufficiently powerful computer.
I'm in. I'll read it this weekend
My take, without giving away the story.
The early science fiction writers were brilliant in ways many new writers just can't duplicate.
Clark, Heinlein, Verne, Wells, and Asimov, all had a way of writing that was profound in how they communicated their story. Every word was a brush stroke on a painting that came to life as they put words to paper. In 4400 words he has conveyed an entire world to you and drawn you into the story in a way many modern writers struggle to. You can picture that bar in your mind and even the crowd that is in it. I would almost bet you know where in the bar you were sitting while this story was being told. There was no fluff or fill, or words just for the sake of words. If a story was short, that's what it was and they left it there. Just brilliant.
I'm going to have to go back are reread some of the classics.
I don't remember for sure if it's one I read as a teen or not. Don't recognize the story, but I'll look it up!
As to the technical side, most of his stories tried to be as tech savy as he could (he tried to write science fiction, and did not care for science fantasy being confused as the same thing)
But the tech, in most of his books, was not usually the primary meaning of his writings. Just the mechanism to carry his meaning.
Can someone confirm this is it:: https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Arthur%20C%20Clarke%20-%20Silence%20Please.pdf
I am pretty sure the above is legal. Please delete if not.
In reply to aircooled :
Yes.
1)
1) that was the most British story I have ever read.
2) I wonder if the general idea of the pub influenced Spider Robinson on Callahan's Place
3) I've read this story before in a Marvel comic. It reminds me of archetypal heros found in myths all over the world and how there are no new stories (not saying this is new, or that the Marvel story was newer than Clarke, just saying.)
4) I am reminded of a thought experiment for a speaker system that was supposed to be multiple emitters. Similar to how multiple communication systems use frequency modulation, the actual sound you wanted to hear would be incorporated into a carrier wave and blasted from one emitter. You would then have the carrier wave's destructive wave blasted from the other emitter.
The two would meet and the carrier wave and its opposite would cancel out and you would get the music originally transmitted.
03Panther said:But the tech, in most of his books, was not usually the primary meaning of his writings. Just the mechanism to carry his meaning.
I'd agree that goes for a bit of sci-fi. Just have to accept some technical inaccuracies and enjoy the story. Otherwise you'll be wondering why every planet/moon/space vessel visited in Star Wars/Star Trek/etc. has the same gravitational pull.
In reply to Toyman! :
I'm currently reading Clarke's "The Collected Stories." It's 116 short stories in close to a thousand pages. I think I paid like $10 for my copy (online, used, via you know who). And, yeah, you don't need a ton of words to tell an engaging story.
Glad to hear the positive feedback, and hope more of you get a chance to dive into it this weekend. (Good book weather, right?)
Read it, enjoyed it on the suspended disbelief standard with which all old sci-fi should be read
Did he have other stories with the same framework, or was the Wednesdays at this specific pub unique to this tale?
My other bit I enjoyed was the closing question of "why haven't we heard of this happening?" when the main device, both storywise and mechanical, was the killer of sounds...
I read it quickly today and will re read it over the weekend. I vaguely remember reading a Space Odyssey in High School, Clarke was an amazing predictor of future technology as was Ray Bradbury.
travellering said:Did he have other stories with the same framework, or was the Wednesdays at this specific pub unique to this tale?
This story was the first in a series of stories about tales from the pub, and apparently they did inspire Callahan's Crosstime Saloon:
11GTCS said:I read it quickly today and will re read it over the weekend. I vaguely remember reading a Space Odyssey in High School, Clarke was an amazing predictor of future technology as was Ray Bradbury.
I recently read the entire Space Odyssey series as he eventually wrote three follow-up books. Interesting to see where he took things (no spoilers).
Not one person has mentioned Sarah Stampe “the passionate postmistress” in all this time. Y’all are slipping! 
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