This New York Times article offers a fascinating peek at how science, coupled with the amazing increases in wealth made possible by free-market capitalism, is improving human life. The focus is on the increasing ability to overcome disability, but it’s also about how life may be made more cool and interesting. Here’s a sample:
Mr. Chorost, who is 40 and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, suffered his own disability by losing his hearing four years ago. Soon after, he had a device known as a cochlear implant placed surgically under the skin behind his ear to restore his hearing. The device requires him to wear a microphone on the side of his head.
In a book he wrote, “Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human,” Mr. Chorost recounts how he went to an electronics store to buy a cable to plug his compact disc player into his implant’s sound processor. When he explained to the salesclerk that he had a “bionic ear” and showed how he planned to jack the music directly into his head, the clerk nodded and turned back to the cables on the wall. Mr. Chorost wrote, “Maybe he has customers walking into the store all the time asking how to plug things into themselves.”