A Quck Philosphical Digression

Something to consider: if sound is, as the implant experience shows, your brain’s ability to read sounds, and sight is, as Oliver Sacks writes, your brain’s ability to read the information of the optic nerve, and if, I would imagine, a similar definition follows for smell, taste, and touch -- for all sense perception -- well then, where does the world end and where to we begin? We assume that we are separate from what we experience, that noises and sunsets and breezes are OUT THERE, while we are inside somewhere, with all these crucial thoughts to figure out and jobs to get through and cringe-inducing credit card bills. We assume that we are individuals living out our individual lives, and the world is something we have to figure out and conquer – well maybe that’s true, but how can it be the whole truth? An implant says that sound exists to the degree we can hear it -- that any noise in the world is not separate from our own minds. It’s all one thing.

One thing. Hmm?