Cochlear Implant is a Cyborg-enhanced hearing aid!

In American Sign Language (ASL), I want to share with you all about my view on cochlear implant as like in the science fiction Star Trek drama. "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. (You will be absorb into other culture of cyborgization. Ability to resist the influence is completely ineffective) is a famous quote from the Star Trek Borgs who changed its aliens into their culture and under the control of the Borg Queen. It made me wonder if the deaf culture is now become the new definition of the deaf culture as the deaf cyborg culture since the cochlear implant is now inserting into the human being and enhanced their hearing abilities. *****
I found the interesting article about the cyborgization in the humans. I just copied from the Wikipedia (Cyborg). Here is the article: There are two important and different types of cyborgs in medicine: these are the restorative and the enhanced. Restorative technologies restore lost function, organs, and limbs The key aspect of restorative cyborgization is the repair of broken or missing processes to revert to a healthy or average level of function. There is no enhancement to the original faculties and processes that were lost. *****
On the contrary, the enhanced cyborg follows a principle, and it is the principle of optimal performance: maximising output (the information or modifications obtained) and minimising input (the energy expended in the process) . Thus, the enhanced cyborg intends to exceed normal processes or even gain new functions that were not originally present. Although prostheses in general supplement lost or damaged body parts with the integration of a mechanical artifice, bionic implants in medicine allow model organs or body parts to mimic the original function more closely. *****
Michael Chorost wrote a memoir of his experience with cochlear implants, or bionic ear, titled "Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) is a scientific memoir of going deaf and getting my hearing back with a cochlear implant, that is, a computer embedded in my skull. Science fiction writers and filmmakers have speculated about cyborgs (human-computer fusions) for decades, but in his book, he reveal what its really like to have part of ones body controlled by a computer. *****
Jesse Sullivan became one of the first people to operate a fully robotic limb through a nerve-muscle graft, enabling him a complex range of motions beyond that of previous prosthetics.By 2004, a fully functioning artificial heart was developed. The continued technological development of bionic and nanotechnologies begins to raise the question of enhancement, and of the future possibilities for cyborgs which surpass the original functionality of the biological model. *****
The above source is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Deaf
• Vlog
• American
• Sign
• Language
• ASL
• Cochlear
• Implant
• Cyborg
• technology

[TheZephyrr]

ahaha just kidding. thats pretty cool we have the techno to do stuff like this now. awsome

[TheZephyrr]

i have hearing aids. had em since i was 4. i have a chronic RINGING in my ears, makes me want to scream!!! oh and shove a screwdriver in my ear no joke. ok, enough. Do you think this would be a corrective replacement or should i just be thankful i can hear?

[bandwagonretards]

if i were born deaf and my parent DIDN'T give me implants to hear early in age, i'd be pretty fucking pissed at them. who fucking cares if some of us end up as "cyborgs", the idea is to create a standard of living and fulfillment for everyone.

what if your hands got chopped off and you couldn't sign anymore? would you opt in to have robotic hands put on so that you could sign again?

[peterb362]

Thank you Cochlear. Great technology.

[RayhannaLovesCG]

your kidding right?

[Salticid68]

I'm a fan of Star Trek. Yeah, Captain Picard and his crew fighting against Borgs. Thank god, many CI users didn't become Borgs.

[libertine1717]

Thank you for your very insightful analysis using cyborgs on the issue of CI! You should check out Donna Haraway's article The Cyborg Manifesto. Technology is with us and is everywhere and is here to stay. For better or worse. I have a minor hearing loss with a large deaf family, so I am very skeptical of CI on small children.

[PinkProgram]

This is why I refer to myself as a homunculus and not a cyborg... I think the official term is hybrot (hybrid organic technology). though I'm sure the components of my body will be reengineered to function in a human... I'm not sure what a human with organic machine parts would be called. I don't think cyborg really fits if your implants are independent organic symbiotes that graft to the nervous system like polyps in a siphonophore ^_^

[deafmutearthur]

Discovery channel show new thing for one who can not talk... voice implant, device connect to brain ... speak out what you want to say.... I like that... no need to practice.... perfect match with CI