Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More HumanMichael Chorost became a cyborg on October 1, 2001, the day his new ear was booted up. Born hard of hearing in 1964, he went completely deaf in his thirties. Rather than live in silence, he chose to have a computer surgically embedded in his skull to artificially restore his hearing. This is the story of Chorost's journey -- from deafness to hearing, from human to cyborg -- and how it transformed him. The melding of silicon and flesh has long been the stuff of science fiction. But as Chorost reveals in this witty, poignant, and illuminating memoir, fantasy is now giving way to reality. Chorost found his new body mystifyingly mechanical: kitchen magnets stuck to his head, and he could plug himself directly into a CD player. His hearing was routinely upgraded with new software. All this forced him to confront complex questions about humans in the machine age: When the senses become programmable, can we trust what they tell us about the world? Will cochlear implants destroy the signing deaf community? And above all, are cyborgs still human? A brilliant dispatch from the technological frontier, Rebuilt is also an ode to sound. Whether Chorost is adjusting his software in a desperate attempt to make the world sound "right" again, exploring the neurobiology of the ear, or reflecting on the simple pleasure of his mother's voice, he invites us to think about what we hear -- and how we experience the world -- in an altogether new way. Brimming with insight and written with dry, self-deprecating humor, this quirky coming-of-age story unveils, in a way no other book has, the magnificent possibilities of a new technological era. For more information about Michael Chorost and Rebuilt, visit http: //www.rebuilt-thebook.com. |
Contents
Broken | 1 |
Surgery | 23 |
Between Two Worlds | 39 |
Activation | 49 |
Forget About Reality | 67 |
The Computer Reprograms Me | 80 |
Upgrading | 102 |
A Kinship with the Machines | 145 |
A Kinship with the Humans | 158 |
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Common terms and phrases
Advanced Bionics audiologist auditory cortex automatic gain control Becky beeps better Bionics Blake Wilson body brain Butlerian Jihad chips chlear cochlear implant conversation cyborg technologies deaf children deaf community decibels device Doug Lynch electrical electrode array engineers experience eyes feel felt figure frequencies Gallaudet Graeme Clark Gregory Stock hand Haraway head headpiece heard hearing aids Hi-Res human inner hair cells inside Jerry laptop listen live look machine Michael Dorman Mike months nerve endings neural noise normally hearing outer hair cells patients percent pick Pierschalla pissed plug processor programs pulse radio reality Roberson Robocop robot sense signal signing deaf community skin skull sound speech Steve Austin stimulation surgery talk thing tion told turned upgraded voice walk waves wire words writing