Granada (Spain), Feb 26 (IANS\/EFE) The artist whose prosthetic audio-visual implant makes him the world's first cyborg said here Monday that society needs to see technology \"as a human creation, not as something extraterrestrial\". <\/p>\n
\"It's very logical to use technology to enrich ourselves. Cybernetics can help everyone perceive what we cannot perceive,\" Neil Harbisson said in a speech at the University of Granada. <\/p>\n
The 30-year-old artist, composer and activist was born with achromatopsia, a condition that limits colour perception to black and white. <\/p>\n
Harbisson, a native of Northern Ireland who spent most of his youth in Spain, learned in 2003 of a possible cybernetic solution. He and a succession of cyberneticists developed the eyeborg, a head-mounted camera that translates colors into sound waves. <\/p>\n
In 2009, a student at Spain's Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya found a way to put the eyeborg into a chip that can be implanted in the user's head. <\/p>\n
The chip allows the user to perceive infrared and ultraviolet light that is beyond the range of human vision. <\/p>\n
Harbisson says that with the implantation of the chip, he became a cyborg by virtue of \"the union between the software and my brain\". <\/p>\n
He founded the Cyborg Foundation three years ago, aiming to help others follow the same path. <\/p>\n
\"In this decade we will stop using technology as a tool and we will use it as part of the body,\" Harbisson said in Granada. <\/p>\n
The 21st century will witness the emergence of human beings whose bodies incorporate mechanical, electronic and cybernetic elements, he said. <\/p>\n
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Cyborg urges better understanding of technology<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Granada (Spain), Feb 26 (IANS\/EFE) The artist whose prosthetic audio-visual implant makes him the world's first cyborg said here Monday that society needs to see technology \"as a human creation, not as something extraterrestrial\". Continue reading