World's First Cyborg Speaks Out

[JonB]

World's First Cyborg Speaks Out

[vimeo=51920182]

Neil Harbisson hears colors and advocates for cyborg rights.

Artist Neil Harbisson was born with achromatopsia, a rare condition meaning that he cannot see any color. In 2004, he teamed up with computer scientist Adam Montandon to make the eyeborg, a device which translates colors to sounds for Harbisson to hear. Harbisson is said to be the first recognized cyborg in the world, since his passport photo includes his eyeborg enhancement. The eyeborg currently identifies 360 colors, one for each degree on the color wheel, and Harbisson wears it 24 hours a day. Neil Harbisson, on being a cyborg, says that he realized he was when "One day I started hearing colors in my dreams. Then I understood what being a cyborg meant. It's not the union between the eyeborg and my head, what converts me into a cyborg, but the union between the software and my brain. My body and the technology have united. It's very, very human to modify one's body with human creations."

Neil Harbisson helped found The Cyborg Foundation in 2010 and stepped up in his role as a cyborg activist. The Cyborg Foundation aims to help people become cyborgs, defend cyborg rights, and promote the use of cybernetics in the arts. The Cyborg Foundation also provides support to sense development projects like those Harbisson and Montandon collaborated on. Other Cyborg Foundation works include the speedborg, which lets people detect movement through vibrations, and the earborg, which translates sound into color.

The short film about Neil Harbisson, CYBORG FOUNDATION, recently won the GE Focus Forward short film competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

Source: Cyborg Foundation [http://www.cyborgfoundation.com/]


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[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I want to hear colors and see sounds

But for srsly this is pretty awesome and I'm pretty excited about how far we've come from the cave dwelling rock smashers were were when we first started popping up.

Hell I'm excited about how far we've come from just a century ago.

One day we will all be error.

 

[Cyrromatic]

He did not ask for this.

 

[ron1n]

I for one welcome our new Cyborg Overlords.

 

[snagli]

The little antenna looks silly, especially with his haircut, but this is beautiful. I for one would without a doubt enhance my senses and my body through cybernetics, but of course people with disabilities come first.

 

[elvor0]

Condense it into a replacement for the eyes and I'm on board, and if they can upgrade it to see the entire light spectrum then SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! Then after that I want an arm that turns into a compact laser cannon.

It's also great that people who lack certain senses now have a new way to experience certain things, perhaps even more so than the rest of us.

 

[Mojo]

Wow, pretty damn amazing.
Maybe in the future well be able to make blind people "see" with sounds, like bats do, or something...

So, where are my Biotic Amps then, huh?

 

[Alleged_Alec]

" I don't want to be human. I want to see gamma rays, I want to hear X-rays, and I want to smell dark matter. Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly, because I have to -- I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid, limiting spoken language, but I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me. I'm a machine, and I can know much more, I could experience so much more, but I'm trapped in this absurd body."
- Cavil

 

[OniaPL]

Rather than developing this kind of technology, wouldn't it be more effective to dump that cash in something like gene therapy and gene research? Being able to use a vector to put a properly working, dominative allele in the place of one of the recessive alleles that cause achromatopsia (or being able to find the recessive gene and deal with it during the embryo/fetus phase) would be far better than just sticking a machine into someone's head and make them "hear" sounds.

That'd be a future where I'd like to live.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

And what's the first thing he did with this amazing gift? He made a painting of Justin Bieber's song. How delightful.

 

[LordMonty]

Respect to him. Let the flood gates of this new world spill forth.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

This is awesome.

The future is now, folks! Call me when I can connect to the internet with my mind, and get ocular implants that allow me to zoom my vision and record and stuff. Oh, and fix my vision. I'd love to not have to deal with glasses anymore, as good as they look on me.

 

[Genocidicles]

Reminded me of Alpha Centauri:


I for one would gladly become a cyborg, if the enhancements were an improvement. I've got quite crummy eyes, so I wouldn't mind some robotic replacements with built in nightvision or something.

 

[VanQ]

Dear diary,

Today when I woke up, I learned that I had awoken in the future.

Rather than developing this kind of technology, wouldn't it be more effective to dump that cash in something like gene therapy and gene research? Being able to use a vector to put a properly working, dominative allele in the place of one of the recessive alleles that cause achromatopsia (or being able to find the recessive gene and deal with it during the embryo/fetus phase) would be far better than just sticking a machine into someone's head and make them "hear" sounds.

That'd be a future where I'd like to live.

You would think so, but humans tend to prefer the easy answer to the right answer.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Finally! The time to upgrade is drawing near!

Wow...
I was starting to think I wouldn't live to see the day...

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Good for him, it's really cool to see that this kinda thing is beginning to make an impact on people's lives.

Although "Nature sounds quite dull, but supermarkets are really exciting"? If I were him I'd ask for a retune of my Eyeborg.