Walking in the shoes of others through brain-to-brain interfaces: a phenomenological approach to the generation of a collective living body

Abstract

This paper explores brain-to-brain interfaces (B2BI) as innovative human-technology interactions from a philosophical perspective to show how the implementation of this technology raises new philosophical questions about who we are and how we live in the world. More specifically, this text introduces the emergence of a collective living body through digital technologies from a phenomenological perspective to open the path to analyzing its effects on society. Few studies in the humanities have been focusing on how new human-technology interactions can connect several subjects into one living body by enabling subjects to literally “walk in the shoes of others”. This novel ability radically reframes some philosophical assumptions about what individual subjects are and how to think of them since the boundaries dividing them seem to blur. The constitution of a new type of human-technology interaction changes who we are and how we live, and we need to focus on such a change to tackle the challenges we will have to face in how we think of ourselves and live with others.