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Cyborgs need mutant equality, protection from hacking

Simnikiwe Mzekandaba
By Simnikiwe Mzekandaba, IT in government editor
Johannesburg, 19 May 2023
Neil Harbisson, speaking at the IDC South Africa CIO Summit 2023.
Neil Harbisson, speaking at the IDC South Africa CIO Summit 2023.

Real-life cyborg Neil Harbisson believes non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the blockchain will create much safer connections for future generations that have internet sensors implanted in their bodies.

This, after someone sent colours to his head without permission. Harbisson, who has an antenna implanted in his skull that allows him to hear colours, was a guest speaker at yesterday’s IDC South Africa CIO Summit 2023.

His antenna can receive information from satellites and five other people around the world that have permission to send him data. In addition to the antenna, he has an internet connection implant that allows him to receive colours from the internet.

However, having the internet in his head puts him at risk of hacking; something he says he only experienced once but enjoyed. “It was an interesting experience to feel colours someone was sending to my head without permission.”

However, the incident prompted him to come up with a solution to enable future cyborgs to avoid the situation, creating a safer system through an NFT.

“Instead of connecting to the internet to send colours to my head, you need to do it via the blockchain. It’s a much safer way of connecting bodies to the internet.

“In the future, if you have the internet in your body, or for future generations that have organs that have internet connections in their bodies, I think the safest way will be to connect via the blockchain and through NFTs.

“Now, one person can send colours to my head and they have part of the NFT. This person has a lot of content that allows him to send colours to my head.

“We’ve been using the internet as a tool or communication system for many decades now, but I think the next stage is that the internet will slowly become a sense or a sensory extension.”

Cyborg community

The world’s first officially recognised cyborg, Harbisson was born with a rare condition called achromatopsia, which means he is totally colour blind and only sees in black and white and shades of grey.

ITWeb first reported on him in 2018, when he explained his desire to design a new perception of reality and create a new sense that would let him extend beyond his human limitations.

Catalan-born Harbisson decided to have an antenna with sensors implanted into the back of his skull that lets him hear colours. The WiFi-enabled antenna sends audible vibrations in his skull to report information about surrounding electromagnetic radiation. This means he can hear the colour spectrum, including infrared and ultra-violet; colours invisible to other humans.

Harbisson told the IDC event audience that colour has always been a mysterious element, and he tried to learn about it as much as possible.

Isaac Newton’s theory about the connection between colour and sound is what sparked the process to becoming a real-life cyborg.

“Colour and sound are vibrations; they both have frequencies – there is a relationship between colour and sound,” he said. “However, Isaac Newton had no technology to detect the frequency of red, or the frequency of yellow.

“Today, we have technology that allows us to detect the frequencies of colour, so we can relate them automatically to specific sounds.

“In order to sense colour, I created a system with my friend…that allowed me to hear the sound of red, the sound of blue, and this allowed me to distinguish colour through sound.”

During his talk, Harbisson said the part-human part-machine community is growing, with more people implanting technology sensors in their bodies.

He revealed that people are creating new organs to extend their senses to the level of animal species.

Referencing some of the examples since his implant, he said a person has two implants in her feet that allow her to feel seismic activities, much like elephants can experience.

There are also sensory tooth implants for people to communicate from mouth-to-mouth, he stated. “This is trans-dental communication system that works in space and under water – it’s a Bluetooth tooth that allows you to communicate from mouth-to-mouth.”

Other sensory implants include those for eco-location, magnetoreception, feeling the weather in a precise way, sensors for feeling movement and time relatively.

In 2018, it was reported that over 3 000 Swedish people had microchips implanted under their skin to replace ID cards since the introduction of the technology.

According to Harbisson, people who choose to have technology-based implants should have rights, including morphological freedom, organ naturalisation, freedom from disassembly, mutant equality and bodily sovereignty.

The latter, he stated, is the freedom to decide who has the right to ‘enter’ their bodies via the internet, in relation to hacking.

Technology evolution timeline

Harbisson said that over the years, he has been stopped in the streets by people wanting to find out what the antenna is for.

He provided a timeline of what people have thought the antenna is for over the years:

  • 2004 – reading light.
  • 2005 and 2006 – microphone.
  • 2008 – hands-free telephone.
  • 2009 – GoPro camera.
  • 2012 – Google Street View.
  • 2013 – Google Glass.
  • 2015 – selfie stick.
  • 2016 – people thought he was Pokémon and tried to catch him.

“Our reaction to technology keeps changing, but hopefully in the near future, we will see people with antennas and other sensory implants, and simply ask: what is your new sense?”

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