The cyborgs are coming — and that might reshape our concept of disability
Human augmentation is not a new concept. Many people we meet every day are augmented, some are less visible such as a heart regulated with a pacemaker, hearing enhanced with a cochlear implant, or a hip or limb replaced with a man-made alternative. Others literally wear their augmentation for all to see, such as a hearing aid or glasses. Augmentation has been part of our daily lives for centuries.
But new forms of augmentation are emerging, the technologies worn, or implanted are driven by electronic sensors and connectivity, responding to impulses and interpreting data from the world around us to give humans new functional capacity, or to mediate and mitigate where a function has been impaired. Whether we define ourselves as disabled or not, human augmentation is about to change our concept of human. That change will encompass and must include our concepts of disability.
For over 20 years, the debate has centred upon how disability is a result of the barriers created within physical and virtual worlds. To address disability, we address those barriers caused by design and attitudes. For example, obstacles of steps and stairs are addressed by introducing a lift, or escalator or merely a ramp. The text size on a page can be enlarged in an ebook reader or application, and content on a website when designed to meet accessibility standards can be read aloud, magnified or made to stand out against a background.
Human augmentation shifts our thinking and debate into new directions. Suppose it becomes a norm for all humans. In that case, there is significant potential for the application of augmentation technologies to target bodies with functional limitations and specific impairments, enhancing and remediating personal capability rather than rethinking and reshaping our world to be more inclusive.
Human augmentation to address impairment such as contact lenses are commonplace, but in the coming years, this will expand considerably as current wearable technologies become implanted and embedded into our bodies. The day of the cyborg is upon us. The features that will shape our cyborg future are emerging
Augmented Vision
Prototypes and examples of enhanced retinas have been demonstrated. Enhanced or replacement retinas and eyes can be used create perception where no sight has been possible, or to enhance vision with additional data
Augmented Hearing
Augmented hearing offers the potential not only to amplify the sounds in the world around us, but also to select and filter those sounds to allow focus upon those that we want and need to hear. By treating sound as data, the sounds can also be transformed into other formats to alert and notify the wearer
Augmented Bodies
Prosthetics are becoming smarter, adding control from impulses from the brain but also acting to provide additional functions to limbs. Prototypes of hands with extra thumbs, sensors embedded in the fingertips and increased grip and strength have all been demonstrated. Such technologies may form an exoskeleton with the capacity to add strength and speed to all parts of the body
A sixth sense
Beyond our current senses, wearable and embedded technologies provide a basis for augmented reality, giving humans the ability to perceive and interact with digital data in real-time, fully integrated with our other senses.
In each of these examples, augmentation increases function and accommodates need by enhancing the person, not the environment, that runs contrary to the social model of disability and drives us closer to a neo-medical model or human capacity model. Capacity is defined both by what we can do today, and what we may be able to do tomorrow once enhanced.
What does this mean? Perspectives on the concept of disability would be challenged, with the most significant impact upon those who are outliers, for those whom augmentation does not give the scaffold needed to integrate into a community. The risk for some is that if investment in a social model declines, as many impairments are addressed through augmentation, then those with complex and multiple needs may find themselves excluded, a world that does not support them, and technologies that do not help. In these cases, the people most vulnerable to exclusion innovation may be the key that locks the door to inclusion, rather than to open it wide.
