Wheatalks and Hearing
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending WheaTalks, Wheaton's version of the famous TED Talks. I must admit, I expected to be bored out of my mind during the two and a half hours that followed (I went to support a friend who was giving one of these talks), but I ended up thoroughly enjoying myself. The topics were fascinating and I was so impressed by our peer's intellect, but the last talk, Professor Morris's talk, made me think of this class immediately.
Professor Morris discussed how we, as humans, are becoming increasingly dependent on technology, and, in 2035, if technology continues to develop at the rate that is has, computers will be more powerful than all human minds combined. In fact, we are merging with our technology, sometimes in dramatic ways.
Neil Harbisson was born completely color blind. He sees the world in grey, but, with the help of technology, he has expanded his perception of the world so he can recognize colors. He had a camera surgically fixed to his brain, which emits a tone in his mind that varies depending on the color the camera registers. He now hears colors intensely. But he didn't stop here. He expanded his camera to detect infrared and ultraviolet rays, effectively expanding his sensory input substantially and beyond normal human levels.
He believes that we should use technology to transcend our senses, enhancing our perception of the world around us. I find this to be an interesting suggestion. I can't help but feel that its a bit... unnatural. It feels like messing with the human condition, honestly, which is a surprising position for me to take on this issue. Usually, I'm very open minded about these things, but I cant help but feel as though we are meant to experience the world in a certain way. But, at the same time, I see a synesthete to be 'natural', a natural accidental crossing of neurons. And Neil was born without color, and this is his way of compensating for that. Why shouldn't we be able to manufacture these neuron crosses ourselves?
Examples like these certainly raise a lot of questions, and these questions don't have easy answers. I think unfamiliarity is a big part of this issue, because people (including myself) are uncomfortable with the unknown. And the religious connotations here are strong to say the least, because if we are truly made in God's image, then this is a dramatic change to that blueprint that many believe in so strongly. There is a lot of possibility for discrimination here, which is concerning to say the least.
Here is a link to an interview with him. He also has a TED Talk which was quite interesting as well.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/23/cyborg-neil-harbisson-interview_n_2745307.html
Professor Morris discussed how we, as humans, are becoming increasingly dependent on technology, and, in 2035, if technology continues to develop at the rate that is has, computers will be more powerful than all human minds combined. In fact, we are merging with our technology, sometimes in dramatic ways.
Neil Harbisson was born completely color blind. He sees the world in grey, but, with the help of technology, he has expanded his perception of the world so he can recognize colors. He had a camera surgically fixed to his brain, which emits a tone in his mind that varies depending on the color the camera registers. He now hears colors intensely. But he didn't stop here. He expanded his camera to detect infrared and ultraviolet rays, effectively expanding his sensory input substantially and beyond normal human levels.
He believes that we should use technology to transcend our senses, enhancing our perception of the world around us. I find this to be an interesting suggestion. I can't help but feel that its a bit... unnatural. It feels like messing with the human condition, honestly, which is a surprising position for me to take on this issue. Usually, I'm very open minded about these things, but I cant help but feel as though we are meant to experience the world in a certain way. But, at the same time, I see a synesthete to be 'natural', a natural accidental crossing of neurons. And Neil was born without color, and this is his way of compensating for that. Why shouldn't we be able to manufacture these neuron crosses ourselves?
Examples like these certainly raise a lot of questions, and these questions don't have easy answers. I think unfamiliarity is a big part of this issue, because people (including myself) are uncomfortable with the unknown. And the religious connotations here are strong to say the least, because if we are truly made in God's image, then this is a dramatic change to that blueprint that many believe in so strongly. There is a lot of possibility for discrimination here, which is concerning to say the least.
Here is a link to an interview with him. He also has a TED Talk which was quite interesting as well.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/23/cyborg-neil-harbisson-interview_n_2745307.html
It is certainly an impressive, almost intimidating idea, that technology with outsmart us one day. However, even in this example of being able to perceive infrared and ultraviolet light, the man still had to have these wave lengths translated into sounds. So despite his expanded perception it still had to be translated into something that he could understand. It was not as if his brain was able to perceive these wavelengths by itself. This might make people think that computers are becoming smarter than we are but really it is doing a simple prescribed translation based on code. I am not saying artificial intelligence is not a real possibility, but I do think it is going to be very difficult to get there and it will be available to a limited wealthy few if ever.
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