Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human

Science News, August 13, 2005

REBUILT: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human

MICHAEL CHOROST

In an intensely personal narrative, Chorost describes his tumultuous journey from life as a deaf person to life with artificial hearing. Hard of hearing as the result of childhood rubella, the author describes how he lived for 36 years using a combination of powerful hearing aids and lipreading. When, in 2001, his deafness progressed, Chorost decided to undergo cochlear-implant surgery, operation in which a tiny soundan sensing apparatus is put into the damaged cochlea and then controlled via an external processor that's worn behind the ear. Chorost describes how he worried that becoming part machine, a cyborg, would alter his sense of the world and his sense of self. Meanwhile, he deftly describes the biology of hearing and cochlear surgery. He conveys what it felt like to adjust to the implant and to hear the world as filtered through computer software. He reveals how the melding of machine and flesh, has given him a new perspective on life, love, and the senses. Houghton Mifflin, 2005, 224 p., b&w illus., hardcover, $24.00.