Cyborgs’ Perception, Cognition, Society, Environment, and Ethics: Interview with Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas, 14 October 2016, Ace Hotel, New York City

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe article contains an interview conducted with Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas during research at Temple University in Philadelphia (funded by the Kosciuszko Foundation), at the invitation of professor Joseph Margolis, as part of a larger forthcoming research project—a monograph on cyborg persons. It asks how the artefactual senses implanted by Harbisson and Ribas affect their perception and cognition, allowing consideration of how these two cyborg persons redefine their relationships to the environment in both social and ecological terms. Harbisson and Ribas are case studies for answering the question of how new cyborg senses (obtained by inserting implants into their bodies) change their beliefs and attitudes toward their own bodies, the bodies of others, and the world at large. I seek to identify changes in the knowledge of the world experienced by cyborg persons, trying to understand their perceptual and emotional experience of the world.