Release Date: 02 June, 2005
Hardcover
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From Publishers Weekly
Chorost had been severely hearing impaired since birth when, one morning in 2001, his remaining hearing suddenly and inexplicably shut down. Fortunately for Chorost, cochlear implants have progressed to the point where people formerly isolated from everyday sounds can hear leaves rustle as they walk through them. A tiny device, the technological equivalent of a 286 computer, was surgically implanted behind the author's left ear. A magnetic headpiece sticks to his head over the implant, with a wire connected to a speech processor on his belt. As Chorost makes clear, his hearing wasn't restored; it was replaced. His body is now part "machine." The implant was only the first step of the author's learning to hear again, as his brain struggled to interpret the new electrical signals it was receiving. Chorost, who conducts research in educational technology, faced problems with activities most people take for granted: talking on a cell phone or carrying on a conversation in a crowded room. He recounts with candor and humor his struggles with relationships, both casual and intimate. Readers will find much food for thought on the implications of medical technology and what constitutes our humanity in this beautifully written debut.
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Review
"Deeply enjoyable...Chorost is at the vanguard of where most baby-boomers will end up--part human and part machine." --Rodney Brooks, director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab and author of Flesh and Machines "Chorost takes us on an amazing intellectual journey...[and he] has a fine ear for language...A lovely book." --Robin Marantz Henig, author of Pandora"s Baby and The Monk in the Garden "Chorost is a quite amazing new writer whose prose spirits the reader across the sound barrier..." --Sol Stein, author of Stein on Writing and (with James Baldwin) Native Sons "Chorost has written a wonderfully fascinating account of banishing total deafness...Beethoven would be encouraged." --Manfred Clynes, coiner of the term "cyborg" and Professor of Biophysics at Georgetown University "This is a terrific book--an eyewitness bulletin from the borderlands where technology and bodies clash and meld. I read it through in one huge chomp, shouting and chortling at this adventure or that. Chorost pulls off the high-wire stunt of conveying scientific accuracy about a complex biomedical topic while writing with the cliffhanger excitement of an action adventure videogame." --Allucquére Rosanne Stone, author of The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age "An exemplary first-person account of becoming a cyborg. Rebuilt combines technical and philosophical erudition with fine writing." --Chris Hables Gray, author of Cyborg Citizen: Politics in the Posthuman Age and editor of The Cyborg Handbook "Rebuilt is a heartfelt exploration of technologically mediated perception...Chorost"s journey is that of humanity itself." -- Andy Clark, author of Natural-Born Cyborgs
Review
"Readers will find much food for thought . . . in this beautifully written debut."
Andy Clark, author of Natural-Born Cyborgs
"Rebuilt is a heartfelt exploration of technologically mediated perception...Chorost’s journey is that of humanity itself."
Robin Marantz Henig, author of Pandora’s Baby and The Monk in the Garden
"Chorost takes us on an amazing intellectual journey...[and he] has a fine ear for language...A lovely book."
Sol Stein, author of Stein on Writing and (with James Baldwin) Native Sons
"Chorost is a quite amazing new writer whose prose spirits the reader across the sound barrier..."
Manfred Clynes, coiner of the term
"Chorost has written a wonderfully fascinating account of banishing total deafness...Beethoven would be encouraged."
Book Description
Michael 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.
About the Author
Having been hard of hearing since he was born, at age 36 in 2001 Michael Chorost had a small computer put into his brain so he could hear sounds and learn to recognize words. Chorost, a Ph.D. education-technology expert, lives in Redwood City, California. Rating 5.0
Everybody should read this bookThis book isn't perfect. If I was Chorost's editor, I'd have told him to cut a few things & beef up other parts (and particularly told him "Less about the girls, more about the code"! Chorost seems to have underrated the interesting-ness of his insights as a guy who knows about software and overrated the interest of online dating; cf. "Genes, Girls and Gamow," a similar exercise...). But that said, this is one of the most striking and memorable books I've read for ages. Chorost is the perfect person to write this book, and his insights into the wonders & difficulties of the cochlear implant should be required reading for EVERYBODY who has an interest in biotechnology, language, education, neurology, etc. A real must-read. |
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