Sound Waves

I reckon that the sound energy will be absorbed, either by the air or by meeting another medium and making it vibrate, and be converted to heat. No trace of the original data in the sound waves will remain. Anyone else got any better ideas?

I agree, although it's possible that some of the sound energy could have "imprinted" itself by deforming objects. Check out Hearing Ancient Sounds?

This is one of those "in theory" things. It is often said that if you put enough monkeys at enough keyboards, they would eventually type out all the great works of literature, entirely by chance. But look at the actual numbers: never mind all the great works, just the name "William Shakespeare" alone would require eighteen to the twenty-sixth power tries, which is larger than the number of atoms in the universe. (Thank you Isaac Asimov.) So "in theory" doesn't hold up "in fact." In theory, sound waves radiate outward spherically, and if you could get a large enough spherical mirror in the right place, you could pick up past sounds. In fact, the order represented by spoken words is swallowed in noise and chaos within seconds. The energy exists, but coherence cannot be retrieved.

Well, I would have to disagree here with the premise that the energy exists still in acoustic form.

If that were true the accumulation of background noise would be additive and we would all be long deaf from the sounds of the past. Although it has been proven time and time again we spend more time talking than listening.

Acoustic energy is mechanical in nature and consists of the rarefaction and pressurization of air or other solid material. Eventually that energy, as JohnDG noted, will be converted to almost completely into heat.

What little energy that is not converted into heat many times gets converted into a fist flying into someone's face when the original source of that acoustic energy is found to offend the receiver of the acoustic energy.

I agree.
Lookk the other way:
1. As the Sound Energy is propagating in the environment like a Globe so the level is becoming low & low say infitisimal [sorry for spellings or meaning] that its value goesalmost to zero [non- recoverable in original].

2. Look in case you burn anything,it converts into heat + somant elements like carbon etc which
merges in universe & its value goesalmost to zero [non- recoverable in original].

I hope you got it

I understand that sound waves are just another form of energy. As far as hearing a sond made years ago. researchers say that can hear reniments of the big bang. (but it may be in a form other that sound)

sound cant travel forever. Audible soundis to weak and is absobed by solid matter.