MP3 Bone Hearing and Bionic Eye DirecTV

Forget soundAMP for the iPhone and the traditional cochlear implant — embedded MP3 Bone Hearing is here!

On Friday Mr Hughes had tiny titanium screws drilled into bone behind each ear during a 90-minute operation under general anaesthetic. Once the wounds heal and the screws have fused with bone, abutments will be screwed into the implants, and the processors, about the size of a postage stamp, are clicked into place.

Older-style hearing aids amplify all sounds, making it almost impossible for wearers to hear conversations in noisy environments. They also interfere with frequencies used by mobile and fixed phones and often emit high-pitched whistling sounds. But the newer processors, costing about $6000 each, shut out background noise, giving users up to 25 per cent better hearing, and can be attached directly to MP3 music players or wireless headsets for talking on the phone, Cochlear’s territory manager, Katrina Martin, said.

I’m sorry, but adding MP3 capacity to an embedded bone hearing aid is just as ridiculous as having DirecTV plugged into your Bionic Eye.

What’s the point of it except to say you can do it and that you’ve had it done?

We must be careful to not let technology make a mockery of us and we must always be vigilant that we are using technology to propel us forward into functionality and not just mere comfort or we risk losing our embedded knowing and our limitless human spirit.