Nice Toy, but Why "Make" Someone Hear if They Don't Want To?

Technology Review: Making Deaf Ears Hear with Light

While this isn't earth-shattering news in terms of technological advancement, as someone sympathetic to Deaf culture, and as someone who recognizes that language isn't merely an aural thing, I was really annoyed with this title.

This is perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of transhumanism and its embrace of human-"improving" technology - who gets the right to decide what, precisely, is a deficiency that needs to be corrected or improved in the human condition? Hearing people may think of "curing" deafness as a no-brainer, but members of Deaf culture in the U.S. and elsewhere don't see their not-hearing as a problem, simply another way of being in the world. IMHO, the #1 handicap that Deafies have to deal with is the "benevolence" of a bigoted and closed-minded hearing majority.

We have a lot more to gain by learning from, and cooperating with, a community that carries its culture in its hands than by plugging every last member in to the hifi and hoping for the best. It would be kind of nice if the PTB figure this out before we exterminate another culture.