As a person firmly ensconced in middle age — 57 percent of the way through life, to be precise, if government actuarial tables hold — I have begun to notice certain things not working quite as well as they used to. Specifically, my eyes and my ears.

You can ask my family: My hearing is not what it once was, and not just because I have been known to hear selectively from time to time. As for my eyes, I had them zapped with lasers back in 2005, but the increasing squint as I read tells me the warranty may have expired on that. And I’m not alone — about 14 percent of Americans between 45 and 64 experience hearing loss in some way, while over 90 percent of those over 45 suffer from presbyopia, or the declining ability to focus on near objects. Globally, the World Health Organization projects

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