Cochlear Cyborgs

The five elements (earth, air, fire, water and sky or  cosmos) make up this known world. The world in turn is perceived by us with our five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste and smell). This interaction between us and these elements demand a constant functioning of all the five senses. Each of these senses is unique and has its own importance in the overall sensory experience. In the orchestra of the world attended by the body, the removal of just one sense is enough to throw the experience out of sync. The loss of synchronicity with the beauty of this world because of sensory deprivation causes a tremendous sorrow which cannot be expressed. Such is the agony of an artist who can no longer see or that of a musician who can no longer hear. Beethoven, a legend then and now in the world of mortals left us with immortal musical compositions, some of which were composed even when he was completely deaf. He was in indescribable agony for having been denied the pleasures of hearing his own compositions. His life was dwelt in constant pain over this sensory deprivation from the passion which he most embraced, music. In the now famous letter which he sent his brothers named Heiligenstadt Testament, he writes: 

"O how harshly was I repulsed by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing,...but what a humiliation when one stood beside me and heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone heard the shepherd singing and again I heard nothing, such incidents brought me to the verge of despair, but little more and I would have put an end to my life - only art it was that withheld me, ah it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt called upon me to produce, and so I endured this wretched existence - truly wretched, an excitable body which a sudden change can throw from the best into the worst state ... O men, when some day you read these words, reflect that you did me wrong and let the unfortunate one comfort himself and find one of his kind who despite all obstacles of nature yet did all that was in his power to be accepted among worthy artists and men".

The above notes of personal grief were written in 1802, a time when the biological body had no choice but to accept what was bestowed unto it by random replications of genetic material and the quality of society. Now, in the year 2007, two hundred and five years later, the modern Beethoven has a ray of hope.

Article Author: V.R.Manoj

V.R. Manoj, an Affiliate Scholar of the IEET, recently submitted his PhD thesis on Environmental Biotechnology. His specific interests in transhumanism range from cyborgs and metaverses to environmental and spiritual issues of the posthuman future. He writes the blog “Cyborg Fantasies.”.
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