I don't pretend to be a programmer, my coding experience is very limited and basic. It seems to me to be a simple if/else statement though for the object in question. Have the silence spell tag the object, clearly it's an object as you can interact with it, with the 'silence' effect just like characters are. IF object tag = NOT SILENT (wake nearby goblins) ELSE (do nothing). It's not that hard..?
But that's where we come back to the first scenario. Which objects should be taggable? Everything? They better not miss a single one cause you can be sure a player will find it within a week. No, I think, and yes, it's my personal opinion, that they should simply change the spell description as suggested earlier. Otherwise there are a lot of spells that needs massive coding to be able to be implemented. Transmute Rock is one of those for example. People would throw that spell on every single wall and be upset if that wall didn't turn into mud.
