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rule #1: be kind
Six months later, all 10 showed considerable hearing improvement, with the average volume of perceptible sound improving from 106 decibels (very loud) to 52 (much fainter).
They're understating that a bit; that's an increase in sensitivity of over five orders of magnitude. 106 decibels is about as loud as a chainsaw; 52 is on par with a normal conversation.
I thought the implants were magic, but this seems even more so. Glad to hear this technique is making progress.
So am I, plan on improving it.
Inb4 the deaf community shits on this because they consider it "cultural erasure"
Cultural erasure of what? Deafness isn't a culture. Sign language will exist even if every "deaf person" stops being "deaf" because silent communication is super important.
Infants are taught basic sign language before their vocal linguistic skills develop so they can still communicate.
No sane person has ever resisted such research.
P.S: I put "deaf" in quotes because I'd love to see these folks with such extreme view accurately define "deafness" without resorting to circular arguments and terminologies.
I don't know who you are arguing with... I was just pointing to a real cultural thing that happens whenever we hear about research like this (cochlear implants are a big one). They are very protective of what they consider to be "deaf culture".
I was steel-manning your comment
I'd like to go on, that when I was a teenager me and friends split off into pairs as a sniper and spotter, and played war games with each other. Eye pro, tac-vests that held stuff and were just another layer against a pellet, sometimes heavier clothes (winter), but in the summers it was usually dark colored shorts and tees, and a little bush craft (I picked up a surplus army sniper manual).
Dangerous? 110%
Painful? Only if you get spotted.
Dumber than we allowed ourselves to feel at the time? You betcha.
Cutting to the chase, each pair came up with their own sign language that was useful in the dark, in the quiet, etc.
One of our buddies knew ASL (hearing impaired, deaf parents) so they used that.
Me and my partner decided on NATO hand signals, as we were both the most of ware of that format.
The others? Not entirely sure.
I know a lot was just made up on the fly through gesturing and combining the few signals we remembered, and that was all of us except our hearing impaired buddy.
So yes, some sort of sign language is often created on the fly based on cultural parameters. ASL, NATO, etc... just standardizing the symbols helps, but a lot of families, especially without access to resources use "home-sign" as I've heard it called. Basically, they standardized within their family unit over time based on mutual understanding.
So, there are cultural elements, but it expands past that.
I'm older, spent my 20s in a mosh pit fighting to the front, have ND related APD, at least I think, but sound is still HUGELY important for me in the world. Just don't talk to me, lol.