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We have evolved the internet, engineered cruise missles and put a man on the moon. I may be wrong here, but I think we just might be able to lick the "noisey cooling fan" issue. The industry just needs a reason to do it.

Fan noise suppression is not related to the technologies used in the internet, and certainly not in the extermely noisy moon rockets or cruise missiles. In fact, total noise suppression in an isotropic 3-D environment is not solvable by an out of phase transducer like the ones used for noise suppression headphones, for example. There is always some physical displacement of the cancelling transducer, which implies at least one direction in which sound propagates, and it is then reflected into the rest of the room. Fans can be made much quieter by using lower air speeds and carefully designed air flow, but it is not such a cheap and easy problem as you might think. The best solution is to not use a fan at all!