Silent machines

Geneva in 2061

In 2061, the machines around us are almost silent. Fridges, ventilation and heat pumps hum below the level of a whisper, so you can sleep next to the kitchen. Vacuum cleaners, blenders and drills are designed for quiet from the start, and leaf blowers have given way to rakes and quiet electric tools. On building sites, foundations are pressed into the ground instead of hammered, and directional loudspeakers keep music and television in the room where they are wanted.

Imagine a theatre with a spotlight lighting up only one or two actors on the stage, with the rest of the room in total darkness. Well, these directional speakers work the same way, but with sound instead of light.Grooters, Book 1, Part 8 “Machine”

Geneva today

• Since March 2021, the European energy label for fridges and freezers shows the appliance’s noise in decibels and a noise class from A, the quietest, to D. Class C, for example, covers 36 to 41 dB(A) (Swedish National Agency for Public Procurement).
• Switzerland sets noise emission limits for certain machines and requires their maximum noise level to be marked on them, under the ordinance on machine noise (Federal Office for the Environment).

Where it is already done

• Press-in piling presses foundation piles into the ground hydraulically, instead of hammering or vibrating them. In a Hong Kong government environmental assessment, the Japanese “Silent Piler” is listed at a sound power of 94 dB(A), against 115 dB(A) for a vibratory hammer: 21 decibels less, which people hear as roughly four times quieter.
• Sweden lets public buyers require fridges and freezers of no more than 41 to 43 decibels, checked against the noise class on the energy label, because noise disturbs sleep and the working environment.
• Directional loudspeakers such as the Audio Spotlight, developed by Joseph Pompei at the MIT Media Lab, send sound in a narrow beam of ultrasound: people inside the beam hear clearly, and the sound drops off quickly a step outside it. They are used in museums, but remain expensive and cannot yet reproduce low bass tones, which are precisely what travels most easily through walls.

How far along

Engineering and scale The principle works, but it needs investment, time or better technology.

The path to 2061

Milestones proposed for discussion.

1. 2027The canton, the communes and the housing cooperatives buy only the quietest classes of fridges, ventilation and heat pumps available.
2. 2031Every appliance and tool sold in Switzerland carries a clear noise label; petrol leaf blowers are banned.
3. 2041Quiet construction methods such as press-in piling are the standard on building sites in residential areas.
4. 2051Fridges, ventilation and heat pumps can no longer be heard from the next room, and directional sound is common in homes.
5. 2061Machines serve people without disturbing them.

What moves it

Human needs it serves

Open questions

• Why are quiet professional tools not used everywhere, and what would make them the standard?
• How can ventilation and heat pumps, which energy-efficient buildings need, be made inaudible, even as they age or when they malfunction?
• Can directional loudspeakers learn to reproduce bass, so that neighbours no longer hear each other’s music?

Sources

1. State of Geneva: Souffleuses à feuilles, les règles à suivre (updated May 2026, in French)
2. Swedish National Agency for Public Procurement: Noise level criterion for fridges, freezers and combined fridge-freezers
3. Federal Office for the Environment: Noise theme page, section on appliances and machines (2025, in French)
4. Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department: Environmental impact assessment, Appendix 4.8, construction plant inventory
5. MIT Technology Review: The Sound War, on directional loudspeakers (May 2004)

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