This quieting of nature is not only alarming for the natural world but unhealthy for humans, too, believes Krause.

CNN: Meet the man recording the sound of extinction

It is a well known factor that chronic stress can lead to RRBI type behaviors, not only in humans but in other animals, like rats, with the only other requirements currently required for a diagnosis potentially as limited as deficit in ability for back and forth conversation and developing and maintaining peer appropriate friendships.

FORBES: Abuse Of Mom In Childhood And Autism Risk

While it will probably take at least another 20 years before Zubrin -- or anyone else for that matter -- makes it to the Martian surface, NASA and other space agencies are already drawing up plans for a voyage that will present astronauts not only with physical but also psychological challenges never faced by humans before.

CNN: Mars on the brain? Red Planet pioneers to face cosmic mind trip

For humans are merely one form among many, which the world produces over and over again, not only in everything that lives but also in everything that does not live, drawn in sand, stone, and water.

NEWYORKER: Total Recall