
A deaf girl who found her voice after brain surgery - JonEllis
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47974844
======
telesilla
One day these implants are going to be so sophisticated that we may very well
evolve to not have bio-hearing at all. I have friends with implants, and one
of them regularly just keeps it switched off to focus on writing. I am deeply
envious though of course, at present the bit-depth is not very good from what
I understand about the tech, and his brain even after 20 years of having the
implant isn't good at differentiating between background and foreground
sounds, making conversation difficult for him in noisy places. It's great that
kids are getting these early so they have a chance to learn how to adapt. I'm
excited to see what superpowers they will glean from having powered-brains.

~~~
caprese
2045 hackernews headline: “Senses capable of spying should have hardware
switches”

~~~
sebastianavina
2080 hackernews headling. Google shut down hearing senses on half the
population due to a software error.

~~~
whatshisface
2081: A hearing aid startup runs out of VC capital and shuts down the
centralized server that everyone's ears are dependent on, and publishes a blog
post titled "the next step in our hearing journey."

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_nalply
"...can finally tell her parents she loves them"

... and perhaps you have seen those teary videos on Youtube, too, where a
toddler hears the first time after a surgery and reacts to sound?

I am afraid that these pieces are at least somewhat disingenuous.

Usually they avoid to put into primary focus two important things:

\- that even with surgery the child needs lots and lots of speech therapy (BBC
said at least "...years of therapy...")

\- and that it doesn't always work out.

These failed experiments are truly tragic: these children never learnt to
communicate in a human language and will be mentally limited for their whole
life: it's an effect of language deprivation.

The best way to approach a deaf child to minimize risks is a two-pronged
approach: The parents should accept that they need to learn a Signed Language
and the child should grow up bilingually: both in a Signed Language and in a
Voiced Language. This prevents language deprivation if surgery didn't work out
optimally.

So, in short: the girl should have been able to tell her parents she loves
them long ago!

Disclaimer: I am Deaf myself and opinionated about this subject.

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kaplun
How long can these implant last? Do they need replacement? Do they run on
batteries?

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bellerose
It's remarkable how some people in life, were destined to be forever deaf and
without any control about it. Yet people preach at any age how we have control
instead of teaching how reality really is and where people wouldn't be
labouring under delusion. /hard determinist

~~~
rubbingalcohol
> how reality really is

Well the deaf girl can hear now, so it is clear that sometimes people do have
control over natural conditions.

~~~
bellerose
No, she was just was born into a time where enough suffering, has resulted in
science progressing to the point and where her hearing can be fixed. The act
doesn't change control over natural or personal. She was fated to get the
surgery and whatever comes in life. She is no different than her reflection
and similar to everything in reality. It's a shame people are so against
understanding how things really are at the fundamental level.

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tibbydudeza
I can't wait for headlines like these "CIA warns against using Huawei
P-190(TM) ear implants".

