Neil Harbisson is the world’s first officially recognised human cyborg, having had a device installed in his head to enable him to “hear” colours in the early 2000s. He is the subject of Cyborg: A Documentary, the first full-length film by London-based director Carey Born. This thought-provoking work, which launched in UK cinemas on September 20, not only chronicles Harbisson’s unique journey but also explores the philosophical and ethical questions surrounding human augmentation.
Born without the ability to see any colours, the Catalan-born artist’s life took an extraordinary turn when he decided to augment his sensory experience. He used an anonymous doctor, having been refused ethical permission by a hospital in Barcelona.
He had a sensor surgically implanted in the back of his skull, arcing over his hairline like an insect antenna. Via a chip in his head, it translates the light frequencies of colours into sound vibrations, which he experiences through bone conduction, the same process used by whales and dolphins to hear underwater.
The film makes almost no attempt to explore the history of cyborgism, a term coined in the 1960s by the scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline, though it nods to Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as early progenitors of the concept. Instead, Born gently explores Harbisson’s experiences through conversations with him and his close friend Moon Ribas, interspersed with commentary from other cyborg enthusiasts and the occasional critic.
Harbisson explains how he came to the idea of augmentation – and it is an augmentation, because he can experience infrared and ultraviolet, which are invisible to the rest of us. His system is also internet-connected so he can perceive the colours in images sent by friends from their phones.
He describes how he integrated his new sense, never turning it off, and even started to dream in colour. It becomes clear the sound signals aren’t just a proxy for colours but a genuinely integrated new ability – comparable to people with synaesthesia, who can do things like tasting sounds or feeling colours.
To me now, colour is a new sense which is not visual and it’s not auditive. It’s kind of a vibration that goes into my skull and becomes a sound. It feels like an independent sense now.
The film provides some interesting vignettes on how Harbisson uses his enhanced senses. He can choose the colour of his clothes, for example, informing unusual fashion choices as he sees colour combinations differently from other people.
He associates people and even cities with different colours, and also has an interesting line in face-reading, using his sense to map people’s skin colours:
People who say they’re black, they’re actually very dark orange, and people who say they’re white, they’re actually very light orange. So we are all exactly the same.
He meanwhile argues that his superhuman abilities make him more aware of health risks than the rest of us:
If we could all perceive ultraviolet there wouldn’t be so many people with skin cancer … You wouldn’t want to lie down and sunbathe if you could hear the terrible noise [it makes].“
Harbisson is not only endlessly enthusiastic about his enhancement, he is at the forefront of a movement of artists similarly interested in acquiring new senses through implants. It all coaxes the viewer to consider some provocative questions. At what point does technological integration fundamentally alter who we are? Are there ethical boundaries we should consider? Should we be free to create our own senses, and if so, how would we then share experiences? Will such choices become commonplace in the near future?
I, cyborg?
The film is a timely reminder of the societal challenges facing humanity as cyborgism follows the well-trodden path from science fiction to science fact. Cochlear implants, for instance, have been in use since the 1970s to help those with hearing impairments.
People with diabetes now implant real-time blood sugar monitors, receiving instantaneous readouts via their smartphones. Prosthetics are increasingly enhanced by digital controllers, and the cutting-edge is brain controls.
Elon Musk’s Neuralink is in similar territory. It aims to create human-machine interfaces through embedding computer chips in people’s brains, recently moving from animal to human trials. Musk has spoken about the potential for visual enhancement, not only including infrared and UV but also radar and eagle vision.
The US Department of Defense is trialling computer-controlled exoskeletons which allow soldiers to carry more equipment, while a recent survey found as many as one in 20 people would consider a chip implant for contactless payments (some have been doing so since the late 1990s).
This all suggests that our instinctive disquiet with body augmentation is significantly lower when we see a direct benefit (indeed, tattoos and piercings have been with us for millennia). If this opens the door to more surgical enhancements, perhaps acceptance driven by need will later become acceptance driven by desire and freedom of expression – in line with people like Harbisson.
Many will be tempted by the superstrength and super eyesight portrayed in old TV shows like The Six Million Dollar Man. But particularly in light of recent rapid advances in AI, the key question facing us – and underpinning Cyborg: A Documentary – is, “just because we can, should we?”
On watching the film, I particularly wondered whether people should be free to design their own enhancements and pursue individualism, versus our innate need to operate as a society. Social media, despite enriching many lives, has already enabled extremes in individualism and tribalism.
Of course, some would argue that we have become cyborgs already. I frequently use Google to “remember” a fact, and sometimes now use Claude.ai to help with writing. I’m increasingly conscious of how I might become dependent on such technologies, “cognitively offloading” thought processes that I used to be able to perform myself.
We are only in the very early stages of physically adapting the human form, but our fundamental intelligence is already becoming mediated, even controlled, by machines. Born’s film is therefore as relevant to the present as the future, exploring the challenges we face and the problems we have yet to solve in retaining our humanity.
- is an Innovation Director – Surrey Institute of People-Centred AI, University of Surrey
- This article first appeared in The Conversation
