Is technology changing what it means to be human? Once the notion of a robotic hand was confined only to science fiction, a miraculous treatment only available to the likes of Luke Skywalker. However, what was once fiction is fast becoming reality. Everyday, researchers are discovering new ways to replace – and enhance – the human body with robotic, biological and cybernetic augmentations. With a vision to return sight to the blind, sound to the deaf, and movement to the crippled, science progresses quickly towards a brighter tomorrow.
Few would argue against using such advancements to help people, but questions about the relationship between people and technology quickly arise. Should we be allowed to augment the human body beyond what is “natural”? Where do prosthetics end and enhancements begin? What can we use technology to do? Imagine a world where people use technology to experience the world in entirely new ways: seeing sounds, hearing color and much more.
As technology becomes rapidly more advanced, our relationships with it evolve rapidly as well. To probe these interactions the ASU Imagination Project (a student organization affiliated with the Center for Science and the Imagination) introduces CyberSenses. This new project will design and engineer new devices to allow people to experience the world in new and innovative ways. Simultaneously, we seek to develop an understanding of the ethics of technology and what it really means to be “human” in a cybernetic age.
Over the summer, CyberSenses will be hosting a series of creative workshops to prototype our devices. Also, we will be using online tools and social media to visualize the network of connections between existing technology, cutting-edge research, science fiction, and mainstream culture relating to cybernetics.
For more information, drop us a line: imagination.asu@gmail.com.
FREE LUNCH + ORIENTATION
CyberSenses will be hosting two free lunch orientations to share information about the project with new members! Join us at West Hall, room 160 on ASU’s Tempe campus at 12:30 pm on both Tuesday, May 21 and Thursday, May 25 to learn more.