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\oncecenter{EARLIDS}


	Eyelids are useful organs, and earlids that would enable one to
shut out sound voluntarily would also be useful.  However, if we put our
technological imagination to work, we can do much better than that.

	Suppose all sound reaching a person's auditory nerve comes through
an electronic channel.  The source of the sound is selected and the sound
may be filtered.  The following are possible sources of sound:

	%. The ambient sound.  It comes from microphones attached to the
person and may be filtered by frequency to eliminate band limited noises.
It may be limited to eliminate loud noises.  It may be selected
directionally to allow conversation at a distance.

	%. Radio and recorded sound.  This covers the Walkman and its
descendants.

	%. The individual telephone.  Telephone
numbers should be attachable to persons as well as to places.  Systems of
cellular mobile radio telephones have been proposed for the usual mobile
telephone applications.  In fact, AT&T has applied for frequencies for a
system that will allow 500,000 mobile radiotelephones in a city.  In this
system, the city is divided into cells, and the frequencies assigned to a
cell may be re-used in distant cells.  Presumably, the modulation scheme
discriminates well against weak signals.  A computer keeps track of what
cell a subscriber is in or finds him when he is called and also assigns
him an unused channel.  We propose to extend this to a personal
radiotelephone which will be feasible when electronics is yet more
compact.

	The individual telephone will have a number of social effects some
of which might be bad unless compensated by suitable customs or laws.  Any
person will be able to reach any other person at any time.  This can allow
people who are physically separated instantaneous communication while they
are engaged in other activities.  This will enable separated people to
maintain much closer social relationships of a personal or family or
professional or hobby character.  It obviously requires an elaborate
system for the protection of privacy from unwanted calls.  One must be
able to ($) reject calls from certain people, ($) accept calls only from a
certain class of people, ($) allow urgent communication, etc.  Perhaps if
a call is declared urgent, the sender incurs a charge on his telephone
bill if the recipient doesn't agree that the call was urgent.  If this
charge was rather high, telephone solicitation would be suitably limited.
In general customs will be better than laws, because they can change
more readily and be more readily adapted to the needs and desires
of subgroups of our society.

	The extreme of personal control over sound would be achieved
by having one's normal hearing apparatus removed and replaced by
an electronic connection to the auditory nerve.  No unwanted sound,
however loud, would get through.  There are several remarks to be made.

	1. It isn't currently feasible, but efforts to provide hearing
for the deaf will lead to its development.

	2. It requires a permanent implant of an apparatus in the body.
This apparatus will have to be powered, optimally by the body itself.
(One can imagine a fuel cell electric generator that uses glucose and oxygen
supplied by the blood, i.e. it uses the same sources of energy as the
other organs of the body).  The apparatus must be safe for a lifetime
of use and unnoticeable except through its function.

	3. The current ideology of the medical profession must be
overcome.