My name is Rebecca, and I'm a cyborg. Specifically, I have 32 computer chips inside my head, which rebuild my sense of hearing.
This is called a cochlear implant. You remember the Borg from Star Trek, those aliens who conquered and absorbed everything in sight?
Well, that's me. The good news is I come for your technology and not for your human life-forms.
Actually, I've never seen an episode of Star Trek. But there's a reason for that: television wasn't closed-captioned when I was a kid.
I grew up profoundly deaf. I went to regular schools, and I had to lip-read. I didn't meet another deaf person until I was 20.
Electronics were mostly audio back then. My alarm clock was my sister Barbara, who would set her alarm and then throw something at me to wake up.
My hearing aids were industrial-strength, sledgehammer volume, but they helped me more than they helped most people. With them, I could hear music and the sound of my own voice.
I've always liked the idea that technology can help make the world more human. I used to watch the stereo flash color when the music shifted, and I knew it was just a matter of time before my watch could show me sound, too.
Did you know that hearing occurs in the brain? In your ear is a small organ called the cochlea, and the cochlea is lined with thousands of receptors called hair cells.
When sound enters your ear, those hair cells, they send electric signals to your brain, and your brain then interprets that as sound. Hair-cell damage is really common: noise exposure, ordinary aging, illness.
