Abstract
The ability to hear sounds emerged early in biological evolution as a survival tool to detect imminent dangers, such as the presence of a lurking predator or a collapsing object. It also helped those early carnivores to detect potential prey, and undoubtedly served in communication between members of the same species, whether to scare off a rival with a roar or to attract a potential mate with song (or voice). Even among hominids, hearing was an essential component for the development of language and thus of civilization. Its role in human delight, particularly but not exclusively through music, is undeniable.
Much has changed in the sound environment since those remote times when the first thinking primates roamed the African savannahs. Today, human beings, especially in urban environments, live exposed to multiple sound sources, most of them in the category of noise, noise pollution, unwanted sounds, anthropogenic noise.
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