World's First Cyborg Speaks Out

[Creator002]

Cheers to him. It's still a little sad that he'll never experience the colours visually and that people are treating anything different as "die!", but that's good that he can experience colour in some way. Colour is AWESOME! I hope these enhancements become public before I die. I'd love to extend the range of my perceptions one day.

 

[Hafnium]

Learning about cyborg-ethics at the moment at university, this is very interesting.

 

[manic_depressive13]

That sounded horrendous. So basically he still can't see colour, but now he's accompanied by a cacophony everywhere he goes.

 

[bobajob]

Sounds weird. Glad it works for him, but surely a functioning bionic eye would be preferable?
That would lead to all kinds of awesome enhancements like perception of all the currently invisible wavelengths of the light spectrum evan a built-in HUD(you know you want it).
That sounds like a dodgy workaround rather than a replacement, substituting one sense as another.
Also, plenty of people have already stated the obvious, where does that leave people with cochlear implants, advanced prosthetics and such?
Hhmmm. Take it with a pinch of salt.

 

[Stomperchomper]

As a diabetic with an insulin pump I must object to his claim of first, as I basically have a robotic pancreas. (And I'm not even first with one of those)

 

[Commissar Sae]

Awesome technology! My grandfather was totally colorblind and loved new technology, he probably would have loved this.

I'm no cyborg, but my brain does something just the opposite. When I hear music or tonal sounds, I perceive a specific color along with it. My piano teacher thought I was crazy.

There is actually a medical condition for that, it's called Synesthesia and it is actually pretty cool. Kandynsky was a famous case of it.

OT: I'm always pro-cyborg enhancement, so this is just cool.

 

[insanelich]

This is plain offensive. He's not nearly the first cyborg - Arne Larsson, for example, has a much stronger claim.

In fact, given that his little gadget is removable, it's a very valid position that he's not a cyborg at all.

And given the robot parts under my skin, I am saying it's very offensive this twerp thinks he speaks for all of us.

 

[Madara XIII]

I bet Cyborg-marriage will be recognized in Texas before gay-marriage.

Despite the fact that in the 2003 Lawrence v Texas case, Texas ironically helped legalize same sex sexual activity in every state in the U.S....

Sometimes life can be beautiful like that. But I don't doubt your statement.

 

[Jessta]

They did something like this years ago with a lady who had been born blind by implanting a device directly into her brain that took images of what she saw through a pair of sunglasses and created a number of 'light dots' to give her a vague of idea of what was going on around her. It was pretty primitive looking considering it had wires fused to the glasses and a fairly large metal plug sticking out of her skull, I also heard it was a experimental technology at the time, we had to watch a video on it in my freshman science class.

I think this means not only is this guy not the worlds first cyborg by his slightly warped deffition of a cyborg, but he isn't even the worlds first cyborg by his warped definitions known by one of the thousand or so people that read this article and who pays very little attention to the bio-engineering scene.

On a side note I really like the idea of something like google glasses in robot eye form.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Who is infringing on his rights? We all love technology!

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.

I love that game.

I for one welcome our new Cyborg Overlords.

Cats clearly are the overlords!

 

[Madara XIII]

I bet Cyborg-marriage will be recognized in Texas before gay-marriage.

Despite the fact that in the 2003 Lawrence v Texas case, Texas ironically helped legalize same sex sexual activity in every state in the U.S....

Sometimes life can be beautiful like that. But I don't doubt your statement.

But marriage is a sacred institution between an a robot and another robot. Nice avatar btw: the great and powerful Madara.

Hehehe thanks. I can say the same about your awesome avatar as well.
But yeah the "Sacred" institution of Marriage is a silly subject when it comes to Texas and other southern states.

 

[Dimitriov]

The guy just sounds like a douchebag. He's not a cyborg. He's definitely not the FIRST cyborg. He's just a whiny prat who wants special treatment because he can't see colour... which is barely a disability at all (life is slightly less rich, sure, but it's not much of an actual impediment), and best of all this ugly piece of crap he's wearing doesn't actually fix that!

 

[Zanderinfal]

The year, is 2027...

Seriously though, I love this idea. Sounds pretty rad. Tanshumanists all over the world will rejoice that in years to come, things like this will be the norm.

 

[Blind Sight]

I want to know why this guy needs special rights. It's not like he's being discriminated against because of what he has attached to his head is he? He's just a regular guy with some computer parts attached to him.

Except Cyborgs have been discriminated against. [http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/07/17/cyborg-discrimination-scientist-says-mcdonalds-staff-tried-to-pull-off-his-google-glass-like-eyepiece-then-threw-him-out/]

Last year there was a great conference I went to on human augmentation called Our Post-Human Future where they discussed the implications of cybernetics and improved prosthetics (i.e. questions like if a handicap athlete performed at a level equal to or greater then an Olympic athlete, then why should they be limited to the Paraolympics, stuff like that). While discussing the topic of possible discrimination towards cyborgs with an expert, he pointed out that the most likely place that would occur would be in workplaces, particularly industrial settings. If, for example, strength-oriented or information-processing augmentation became more commonplace, the result would be individuals who could out-excel normal workers for the same price. This raises all sorts of questions in regards to access to technology, union responses to human augmentation, rendering 'normal' humans obsolete, etc. Another question is how governments in general would respond to augmentation, whether through heavily regulating it or redefining existing legal documents to create a right to self-modification.

Basically the ultimate point was that when the technology actually becomes more refined and cost-effective we're going to start seeing dramatic social and cultural shifts. Historically speaking this is a breeding ground for discrimination, so I really think Mr. Harbisson is just planning ahead (even if his title of 'first cyborg' is utter self-congratulatory bullshit).

 

[WWmelb]

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50137987n

Came across this story too... along with the previously linked

http://www.ted.com/talks/todd_kuiken_a_prosthetic_arm_that_feels.html

This shit is... fewcharrrrs.

Science is teh orsum.

i wish i had teh smart.