Synopsis
Michael Chorost became a cyborg when he had a computer surgically embedded in his skull to artificially restore his hearing. Chorost went from deafness to hearing, from human to cyborg. The combination of flesh and computer has long been a science fiction staple, but this memoir outlines how that fantasy is becoming reality.
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From the Author
I wrote "Rebuilt" to convey what it's like to have part of one's body controlled by a computer. Science fiction has long explored the idea of the "cyborg" -- the fusion of human and machine -- but now medical technology has made it possible to write about becoming a cyborg for real. When I went completely deaf in 2001 I received a cochlear implant, which is a computer embedded in the skull with electrodes drilled an inch and a half inside the head to control the user's auditory nerves. What scared me was not so much the surgery itself as the fact that I was turning over my perception of the world to a computer. The computer would decide exactly what was important for me to hear and what wasn't, and it could be reprogrammed at will. There's a lot of science in the book as I explain the implant's remarkable design and software, but I also reach into philosophy, literature, and literary theory to explore what it means to have a writable, editable, and controllable body. I wanted the book to be a memoir of a transformative experience, so I write frankly about how my cochlear implant changed my perspective on my friendships, my dating life, and on computers themselves. Reviewers have found the book both affecting and funny, which is just what I'd hoped.
About the Author
Michael Chorost has a B.A. from Brown University and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in San Francisco, where he writes, teaches, and consults.
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