on cyborgs and sound

Some of you might remember that, when I first moved here, I had my ears examined by our shire's only home-grown laurel & viscount, who is an ear surgeon in real life. I had been told by my Australian audiologist some years before that while hearing aids do help, my hearing problem couldn't be helped by surgery. However, when one has a friend who is an ear surgeon, one has to ask. At the time of that appointment he confirmed that surgery wouldn't help my problem, and we got me my new hearing aids, which I am quite happy with, particularly as I also got a bluetooth adapter which lets my phone talk directly to my hearing aids, so for the first time in my life I can easily carry on a phone conversation (even so it may take years before I get over my deeply instilled belief that email is far superior to phone calls!)

Much to my surprise, when his Excellency recently returned to our shire after a few months of living in Uppsala, where he had been doing training under the country's foremost ear surgeon, he let me know that he has learned of a new technology that may help me. Having an implant that lets me hear better is very appealing--it would be kind of cool to be a cyborg, on such a small scale. There are some details to work out before we decide if I am going to do this, but it is a fascinating prospect. There aren't many people I would trust with a knife on my flesh, but I have seen his high skill in arts and sciences--anyone with the motor control to produce such beautiful works of art also has the motor control to do delicate surgery.