The quest for natural communication: technology, language and deafness

Abstract

This paper examines the ‘natural/artificial’ dichotomy in the context of health-related technology, illustrated here by the issue of communication with deaf people. Since representation and technology form an intrinsic part of human ‘nature’ and human lives, the distinction between the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’ is problematic if intended as a reference to specific characteristics of human bodies, capabilities or activities (e.g. the use of prostheses or sign language for communication). Instead, this dichotomy serves as a linguistic device employed in order to justify preferred (‘natural/ normal/healthy’) forms of life. The diverse ways in which the concept ‘natural’ has been linked with spoken and sign language and the use of auditory aids can hence be shown to be equivocal and contradictory; for example, promotion of spoken language as more ‘natural’ than sign language is associated paradoxically with the implantation in deaf children of electronic aural prostheses.