Before I even started this blog, I would occasionally pose a SyFy Question of the Day to my facebook friends. Sometimes, it was directly related to what I was writing, and I really did want some input to help me decide what direction to take with the story. Other times, it was purely fun. Here’s one of my favorites, from June 2011:
SyFy Question of the day: Is there any plausible reason a writer can give for a human character being deaf in a positive future several centuries in the future?
Kurt Yes that person can hear other people thoughts
Geri I knew someone in college who was deaf because of neural processing issues. Nothing to fix – all the physical parts were there but her brain just didn’t recognize the signals.
Josh Pretentious answer: he chooses to be. 😉
Lisa I knew someone who suffered severe ear infections from hearing aids. There are people allergic to anethesia and can’t get any kind of surgery that would require them to be under. There’s a lot of reasons that people couldn’t be treated.
Angela Spontaneous deafness resulting from noise trauma… e.g. he was near some sort of explosion. If a noise was loud enough, it could do damage significant enough to make a person completely deaf. Another possibility is a psychosomatic effect whereby his subconscious “chooses” not to hear because of some previous (presumably emotional) trauma regarding his hearing.
US_Nessie Oooh! I’m liking the allergic to anesthesia and psychosomatic hearing loss especially!
Robert What? I didn’t hear that.
I would love to hear what you think! Even if you are reading this post a year or more after publishing, I hope you will leave a comment with your own ideas on this topic.
The previous SyFy Q of the Day is We Have Cookies
The shortlink for this post is http://wp.me/p1qnT4-px
The next SyFy Q of the Day is Sugarwater or Saltwater
AmyBeth Inverness 
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What a neat question! I now feel empowered to write a deaf character in a positive future. It’s great to nail down these little details so that our writing is more informed.
Although other aspects of the story began to fall apart and I shoved it in the back of the drawer, I loved the aspect of the deaf character. She wore gloves that took her sign language and translated it into audible words. (We have this tech now… I read an article several years ago. It just doesn’t work *well* yet.) She can also choose the voice that comes out, whether it’s a woman with a distinct accent, or a man’s deep voice. It’s a tool, but also a fun toy!
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