A self-described science-fiction nerd, Chorost was intrigued by the fact that the surgery would designate him a "cyborg," a term used to describe a person whose physiological processes are aided by electrical devices.

"With a cochlear implant, the biology of your ear is not running the show anymore — the software controlling the electrodes is," said Chorost, who was partially deaf since birth. "You become a creature of software, and I found that a strange and creepy thought at first."

Since the surgery, Chorost says he relishes his new designation but realizes that "cyborg" is just a reductive label — simply the acknowledgment of his computer-aided hearing. He insists he experiences the same things as other people.

A former technical writer, Chorost penned Rebuilt: How Becoming Part ComputerMade Me More Human in an effort to share his new and fascinating way of interacting with the world.

"That’s what I take pride in: having the opportunity to have new and still very unusual experiences and try to articulate them and consider what meanings they have," he said.

Though Chorost has never been accused of being less than human, he said he worries that Hollywood promulgates the image of cyborgs as dehumanized. He said part of the reason he wrote the book was to give readers a more realistic and textured definition of the word.

"I wanted to liberate the word from its science-fiction overtones of dehumanized monsters by exploring the technology and writing about my daily experience, with all of its excitement, awkwardness and comedy," Chorost said.

He assures readers that no matter how advanced they are, cyborgs will still worry about paying the rent and taking care of the kids just like everybody else.

Life as a cyborg

With the physiological changes to his body, Chorost said he soon found himself searching for a community. A secular Jew his entire life, he reflected on the teachings of Judaism in order to make himself more comfortable with his new way of sensing the world. In fact, the first song that Chorost sang to see if he could hear with the new cochlear hardware was the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah.

"At first, I figured that identifying myself as a Jew was a way of exploring my relationship to that community," he said. "But now, I think there’s a deeper reason than that. Judaism teaches you that your life isn’t controlled from above, it’s controlled by you. It’s yours to make of it what you will."

While Chorost approaches the definition of "human" from a unique perspective, he said he’s just one of many to weigh in on the issue.

"‘Human,’ for me, is an assignation that is purely value-free. That’s just a biological description. It’s a descriptive term, while ‘person’ is a value-based term," said Anne Foerst, a visiting professor of theology and computer science at St. Bonaventure University in New York and a former theological advisor to the robotics lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

"Human" and “cyborg,” Foerst said, belong in the same category because neither word implies the value of humanness. On the other hand, she said “personhood” is not something that can be empirically proven. It must be assigned. She defines "personhood" as the active or passive participation in the human construction of stories about one another.

"An Alzheimer’s patient without any memories and without people who care for her ceases to be a person," she said. "While one who still has friends or family who love her and remember her past for her is still a person."

Citing the eagerness and prevalence of suicide bombers as an example, Foerst noted humans are quick to deny the personhood of others.

But, said Foerst, denying someone personhood because they have a chip implant is as arbitrary as denying someone personhood because they have a different skin color or different taste in clothing.

Foerst said Chorost is a cyborg because he has a chip implant. "But does it make him cease to be a person? Absolutely not," she said.

Most of the opposition to the merging of humans with robotic parts isn’t based on ethical or moral questions, Foerst said, but on technological ones. If people reject a cyborg, it has more to do with their fear of that merger than their questioning of it as being right or wrong.

Humans, machines or any combination of the two have a right and an ability to have a relationship to a higher power, she added.

"Who are we to say if God would not reach out to a robot? A baby, for example, doesn’t have self-awareness, can’t talk and can’t express itself. So do we, therefore, think a baby is not in a relationship with God? I wouldn’t say so," Foerst said.

She said the main fear is one of comparison: Humans resist being compared to machines and animals because they need to feel they are superior.

Chorost agreed that the fusing of man and machine could be frightening to some people because robots have always been viewed as nonhumans.

In the end, he said, his outlook on the implant draws from both his theological ideas as well as his technological ones.

"My hearing broke down, and I was given the opportunity and the tools with which I could remake it," Chorost said. "The device was given to me, but it was my responsibility to learn to use it and to choose to make the most of it."

By Seth Glick
http://www.stnews.org/rlr-2419.htm