Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human.REBUILT: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human MICHAEL CHOROST Michael Chorost (born 1964) is an American writer, teacher and cyborg. Born with severe loss of hearing due to rubella, his hearing was partially restored with a cochlear implant in 2001. 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 rubella or German measles, acute infectious disease of children and young adults. It is caused by a filterable virus that is spread by droplet spray from the respiratory tract of an infected individual. , the author describes how he lived for 36 years using a combination of powerful hearing aids Hearing Aids Definition A hearing aid is a device that can amplify sound waves in order to help a deaf or hard-of-hearing person hear sounds more clearly. 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 cochlea (kŏk`lēə): see ear. 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 cochlear pertaining to or emanating from the cochlea. cochlear duct the coiled portion of the membranous labyrinth located inside the cochlea; contains endolymph. cochlear nerve see Table 14. 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. |
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