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Never_Seen_Belgrade comments on Less Wrong Product & Service Recommendations - Less Wrong
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The human ear has not previously been under selection pressure to accommodate extended periods of stoppage. Plugging up or cover ears for significant fractions of the day on a regular basis is out-of-spec use of the human body and may have consequences including infections and skin irritation.
Just be careful and talk to a pediatrician before applying this solution to children.
The human ear has also not previously been under selection pressure to accommodate constant noise pollution. Not plugging up or covering the ears (or abandoning civilisation) is also out-of-spec use of the human body and has consequences including stress and damaged hearing.
(Apply evolutionary reasoning consistently!)
On the contrary, whichever wildernesses most shaped our hearing were not silent places. The places people lived, that we know of, in the ice ages were quite wet. Rivers and even streams are constant sources of noise.
There are issues of levels and likely specific frequencies, but complete silence puts the stoppered ear further from the conditions in which it formed as well.
To disclose, I have worked in call centers for a cumulative decade and found that ear infections were more likely if I did not switch which ear was covered at least every week, when ear-covering headsets were the only option. I expect that stopping up ears overnight will have a similar consequence for at least a portion of the population. And so I advise caution.
I do not find fault in that action.