Ask A Genius 1486: Hearing Aids, Sensory Decline, and the Future of Human Augmentation
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/08/13
Rick Rosner shares his first experience with a hearing aid, describing a thirty percent hearing loss at certain frequencies and the improvements in clarity it brings, from sharper environmental sounds to better communication at home. He reflects on his grandfather’s decline due to sensory deprivation, including hearing loss, poor vision, and ill-fitting dentures. Rosner emphasizes the importance of maintaining sensory input to prevent brain atrophy, a concern reinforced by his wife’s observations of her mother’s hearing loss. The conversation shifts to speculative futurism, imagining posthumanist “tech bros” enhancing and adding senses for heightened perception, merging natural evolution with advanced technology.
Rick Rosner: So, I got my first hearing aid today. My hearing was not terrible, but like many people, I had about thirty percent hearing loss at specific frequencies. Moreover, yes, it made it difficult whenever there was background noise.
You made an eye movement—yeah, it was hard for me to hear what you were saying in specific contexts, but we will see if it improves things.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You are a Jewish guy—
“Hey, I cannot hear the radiator. The rad-eee-ate-er is rattling. I cannot hear you. The heat is on now. My wife is talking. What did you say again?”
“Well, it might be your hearing.”
“No, it is not me; it is the rad-eee-ate-er.”
Rosner: No, I have seen my test results. I have seen my audiogram curves. Nobody except Carol was saying I needed to get a hearing aid. However, it makes a big difference for the person you live with all the time.
So, I only got one hearing aid. I put it in the ear that is slightly worse because it is one less thing to deal with. Moreover, it does make things sound crisper—more like a sound design in a movie, where they want the audio to be clear because it provides information and immerses you in the environment.
Stuff that used to be muffled or impressionistic is now sharper and has more components than I had been hearing. For example, the turn signal clicker in my car—it is not just a click-click; there is another texture to it.
Modern hearing aids are great—you do not have to fuss with those tiny batteries anymore. They charge like earbuds, which is easier. They are highly programmable; in fact, you can program them from your iPhone. Moreover, they are cheaper now. Hearing aids used to cost $3,000 to $5,000. This one was $800, and insurance is paying for half. Overall, a reasonable purchase.
I asked if, with only one hearing aid, my other ear might get “lazy.” They said no, that is not a thing. So now I have three add-ons in my head: two contact lenses and a hearing aid.
One of the things that led to my grandpa Marcus’s decline—he lived to 96—was sensory deprivation. As an older man, his main pleasure was watching television, until an accident in which he dropped a TV on his head. He drank some, too. Were these incidents related? Possibly.
As his vision worsened, the last straw came when his well-fitting dentures broke. The VA—his medical provider—gave him a replacement set that did not fit well, was uncomfortable, and probably reduced his enjoyment of eating. All of that together may have contributed to his decline. I do not know precisely what killed him.
Jacobsen: Could it have been the television accident? [Laughing]
Rosner: No—he survived that. They drilled holes in his skull to relieve pressure from bleeding in the brain. In ancient times, drilling holes in the skull was called trepanation, believed to let out evil spirits. In his case, it was to release blood clots.
Jacobsen: I was making a dumb joke.
Rosner: Anyway, what I am saying is that in his nineties, it became harder and harder for him to hear.
His vision was probably declining. His enjoyment of food was declining. So, this gradual removal of sensory input probably also reduced his drive to keep going. I do not know if it killed him, but I am sure it took him further away from the world. That is why, by keeping my vision sharp and my hearing sharp—well, they know.
One of the things my wife is afraid of—she saw it happen with her mom—is that if you do not correct it, as you go deaf, your brain loses the ability to form identifiable sounds from the inputs your ears receive. Your brain loses the ability to think in sound, so it atrophies in specific ways. You want to stay ahead of that. So, yes, I want to keep my sensory input sharp so I do not suffer that fate.
Also, in the future, posthumanist tech bros will probably want to enhance their sensory experiences. They will want super-precise versions of the five senses.
Jacobsen: They will want to tweak those and add extra senses. You could see synesthesia come back into discussion. Synesthesia could be seen as a nonfunctional or semi-functional adaptive form of higher-order senses.
For example, proprioception is a combination of spatial sense and hearing. However, for a synesthete who sees a diamond-coloured blue representing the number seventy-two, it is non-functional or semi-functional unless adapted.
Rosner: I am not thinking about that specifically; someone might want hyper-precise vision.
Jacobsen: That is the point I wanted to make. They will likely seek hyper-precise higher-order perception—adjacent to what we develop through natural selection—by experimenting and trying new things.
Rosner: Nature does not do it quickly, but tech bros will want to turn themselves into sports cars. They will want to live forever. Some of the most extreme posthumanist tech bros are already adding things to their bodies. It’s janky since we are still in the very early days.
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