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Walked through the old Amsted foundry in Chicago last month and the silence was weird
I had to pick up some paperwork from a buddy who works there now, and the place is mostly automated. No more crew of guys yelling over the furnace roar, just robots moving stuff around. It was kinda cool but also gave me a hollow feeling you know? Has anyone else walked through an old shop that got all modern and felt the same way?
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kaigibson1mo ago
Gotta push back a little here, @paulw53. To me that quiet isn't smooth, it's just empty. I get that automation means less chaos and maybe fewer breakdowns, but the soul of a place like that was the noise and the people making it. Walking through a shop where you used to hear guys laughing and swearing and the whole place vibrating just feels like a museum with electricity still running. It's not about things running smooth, it's about something being missing that you can't get back. Hollow is the right word, and I think you miss it more when you remember what it sounded like before.
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max2231mo ago
Dude that "hollow feeling" bit hit me hard. I went through an old steel mill that got switched over to all automated cranes and it was the creepiest thing, just this dead silence where there used to be constant banging and shouting. Felt like a ghost town with machines.
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