We talk to the world’s first cyborg … and he can ‘hear’ colours

Cybernetically enhanced people – cyborgs as they’re called – may have once only been the stuff of science fiction, but now they walk among us.

Known as biohackers, they’re a growing movement that applies “hacking” techniques to biological systems.

A member of their ranks, 33-year-old Neil Harbisson, was in South Africa last week at the SAS Road To Artificial Intelligence AI event to explain the challenges both he and the rest of his community face.

Harbisson, who hails from Catalonia in Spain, has a condition called achromatopsia, meaning he is 100% colourblind and is only able to see the world in shades of black, white and grey.

“The reason I wanted to ‘sense’ colour is because it’s such a social element,” says Harbisson. “I didn’t want to change my sight because seeing in greyscale has its advantages – I have better nightvision than most people and I can see for longer distances because colour doesn’t interfere with my perception of depth.”

In order to “sense” colour, Harbisson underwent an operation in which he received a cybernetic implant in the form of an antenna that’s fixed to the base of his skull.

Neil Harbisson. Picture: Lars Norgaard

This Wi-Fi enabled device sends reports of surrounding electromagnetic radiation to Harbisson’s skull in the form of vibrations. This means he’s able to “hear” what colour he’s looking at based on the tone of each vibration. He’s even able to hear colours most others can’t, such as infrared and ultraviolet.

Harbisson faced quite a few hurdles in his efforts to have his antenna implanted. Doctors refused to perform the surgery until Harbisson had been cleared by a bio-ethics committee, who refused to give him the all-clear, saying such an implant would be “morally unethical” because an antenna is not a pre-existing human body part.

Finally Harbisson was able to find a doctor who would surgically implant the antenna on condition of anonymity.

“We did the surgery on a Monday,” says Harbisson, “because it was his day off!”

It took five weeks for the headaches following the surgery to abate and another five months for Harbisson to adapt to his new sense. During that time he would learn what colours sounded like by looking at coloured cards with the name of each colour printed on them.

“In the beginning it was overwhelming, but slowly the brain got used to it,” he says.

– news@citizen.co.za

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