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Human Augmentation · Recorded milestone

Cochlear implant

Recorded year1978

Graeme Clark's multichannel implant lets deaf people hear speech.

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Built on

Electric hearing aidRecorded · 1902enables
Integrated circuitRecorded · 1958enables
MOSFETRecorded · 1959requires

Led to

New human sensesRecorded · 2017enables
Deafness reversed by gene therapyRecorded · 2024enables
Permanent earbud implantForecast · ~2048enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.