<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:401px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5102b18eecad04d21f000023-721/cyborg.png?maxX=401&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="cyborg " width="401" height="300" /></div><p class="source"><a href="http://vimeo.com/51920182">Cyborg Foundation/Screenshot</a></p><p class="caption"><keyword id="1776288" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Neil-Harbisson">Neil Harbisson</keyword> wearing the Eyeborg</p></div>When Neil Harbisson was a kid, he could only see in black and white.</p>
<p>In fact, he wasn't totally convinced that colors actually existed.</p>
<p>But now, Harbisson can sense color.</p>
<p>He still can't see colors. But now he can hear them with a device he helped create in 2004 called the Eyeborg.</p>
<p>The device c<span>an detect 360 colors the human eye can normally perceive. It also detects infrared light.</span></p>
<p>"Hearing colors changes the way you see everything," Harbisson says in a <a href="http://vimeo.com/51920182">Cyborg Foundation video</a>. </p>
<p>Harbisson says he finds the sounds generated by colors in supermarkets "stimulating."</p>
<p>He also turns music, like Justin Bieber's "Baby," for example, into vibrant paintings—translating the sounds of the song back into the colors he's learned to associate with them. </p>
<p>Harbisson says that he is the first legally recognized <keyword id="1079277" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Cyborg">cyborg</keyword> in the world, as his passport photo shows him with the Eyeborg attached to his head. </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em;">"It's not the union between the Eyeborg and my head what converts me to a cyborg," Harbisson says. It's "the union between the software and my brain. My body and technology have united."</span></p>
<p>Watch the video of Harbisson using the Eyeborg below.</p>
<p><iframe width="618" height="347" frameborder="0" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/51920182"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/51920182">CYBORG FOUNDATION | Rafel Duran Torrent</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/focusf">Focus Forward Films</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Color-Blind Man Is Now A Cyborg Who Can Hear Color

<p><a href="http://codebreaker.codes/"><img src="https://static.businessinsider.com/image/582cde54e02ba71e008b4c0d-800/codebreakers_banner.png" alt="Codebreakers_banner" data-mce-source="Marketplace / Business Insider" /></a></p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/583f02b7e02ba730208b69f8-800/undefined" alt="neil harbisson cyborg" data-mce-source="Skye Gould/Business Insider"><p class="source"><span>Skye Gould/Business Insider</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>A little over a year ago, a good friend of mine casually mentioned over sushi that he can't wait to have magnets installed in his fingertips.<p>He said he wants to pick up silverware just by touching it.</p><p>At first, I thought the statement was pure fantasy - the kind of harebrained idea this particular friend has become known for in our circle.</p><p>Then, a couple months later,&#xa0;<a href="http://www.techinsider.io/what-its-like-to-be-a-cyborg-2015-9">I talked to Neil Harbisson</a>, and suddenly the idea seemed less crazy.</p><p>Harbisson is a 32-year-old cyborg. Twelve years ago, he had an antenna surgically implanted into his skull, which picks up nearby light waves and converts them into sound. For Harbisson, who was born colorblind, the antenna allows him to "hear" color.</p><p>He's among the most recent guests on this season of <a href="http://codebreaker.codes">Codebreaker</a>, the podcast from Marketplace and Business Insider. Harbisson's episode, "The Augmented Self," includes stories from multiple cyborgs who are modifying their body in high-tech ways. More than that, he says cyborgism could help save our species. (Listen to a short clip below.)&#xa0;</p><p><div><iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/295594825&amp;color=00aabb&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false"></iframe></div></p><p>"If we want to surive for thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, we need to change our bodies," Harbisson says. We need to adapt to interact more intimately with our surroundings.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55f170c1dd0895e10a8b46ce-2400" alt="neil harbisson" data-mce-source="Enrique Calvo/Reuters"><p class="source"><span>Enrique Calvo/Reuters</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>I believe Harbisson when he makes these far-reaching claims, as I did last year when we spoke. Humans' relationship to technology is growing more intimate by the microsecond. Eventually - Harbisson suspects within the next 10 to 15 years - part-human, part-machine "cyborgs" will become the norm.<p>"I think it will happen in the late twenties that I will be able to walk out in the street and it will be normal," Harbisson told me, referring to his antenna. "Just as it'll be normal to see someone else with a new body part."</p><p>When Harbisson and I spoke, he talked about the Internet as a "bodily sense." In the same way we taste food and feel textures to interact with the world, Harbisson believes humans will use the Internet to understand the world through information and data.</p><p>In reality, this already happens. When we want to know something, we Google it. We outsource our brainpower to the Internet. In Harbisson's case, the internet lets him "perceive" sunrises sent from Australia. He "hears" the colors of the sunrise and the image is right there in his brain, creating the sensation that he's actually there.</p><p>For the general population, cyborgism represents the logical next step in the evolution of tech's role in our lives.</p><p>What's the difference between a fitness-tracking wristband and a microchip that performs the same function, but lives just a few millimeters deeper, underneath your skin?</p><p>The idea may still violate some people's ideas of personhood, but new technologies always make the majority of people uncomfortable at first.</p><p><span>In 1551, Swiss scientist Conrad Gessner </span><a href="https://ceb.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/gesner/gesner.html">panicked</a><span> that humanity would suffocate from the information overload brought on by the printing press. In his 1909 book </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=S3_s8UCXKUcC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=Are+the+Dead+Alive?&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=hBGjU-T9GYX5oASo3YHoBA&amp;ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=Are%20the%20Dead%20Alive%3F&amp;f=false">"Are the Dead Alive?"</a><span> author Fremont Rider questioned whether the voices people were hearing over the phone were actually ghosts. Up until recently, if you used <a href="http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/History-of-Bluetooth.aspx">a hands-free device</a> to talk on the phone, you looked a little crazy.</span></p><p><span><span>"At the beginning it was weird to see people talking on their own, and people would laugh or point at others because it looked very weird," Harbisson says. "Now you see people every day talking without using the phone, so it looks like they're talking to themselves. And it's become normal."</span></span></p><p>Soon, chip implants will seem normal, too.</p><p><em>Listen below to the latest episode of <a href="http://codebreaker.codes">Codebreaker</a>, and subscribe on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/codebreaker/id1049341702?mt=2">iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.&#xa0;</em></p><p><div><iframe src="http://www.marketplace.org/2016/11/30/tech/codebreaker-marketplace-and-tech-insider/s02-3-augmented-self/popout" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="240px"></iframe></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/human-cyborg-hears-color-via-antenna-2016-11">A man with an antenna implanted in his head tells us what it's like to be a cyborg</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="k5NXJxNzE6UVc66AivaxlxSbixGRdstY" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'k5NXJxNzE6UVc66AivaxlxSbixGRdstY',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

I talked with a real life cyborg, and now I'm convinced 'cyborgism' is the future

<div style="display:none;" id="kalturavideoplaceholder">kalturavideoplaceholder</div><p><span>Artist <a href="http://eyeborg.wix.com/cyborg">Neil Harbisson</a> was born completely color blind and sees the world in grayscale. </span><span>But even though Neil can't </span><em>see</em><span> color doesn't mean he can't <em>sense</em> it. </span><span>That's because Neil Harbisson is a <strong>cyborg</strong> who can <em>hear</em> color.</span></p>
<p><span>In 2004, Neil convinced a doctor to </span><span>implant into his skull an antenna that detects and transposes colors into corresponding tones - allowing him to hear color through bone conduction. He considers it a new body part.</span></p>
<p><span>"This is an implant, so it's permanently attached," Neil says. "There's no way of removing it."</span></p>
<p><span>As co-founder of the <a href="http://eyeborg.wix.com/cyborg">Cyborg Foundation</a> and one of</span><span> </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cyborg-people-who-implanted-tech-2014-8">several known cyborgs on this planet</a><span>,  Neil expects humans to be more open to the idea of implanting technology into their bodies in the near future.</span></p>
<p><span><em>Produced by </em></span><em><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/will-wei">Will Wei</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/graham-flanagan">Graham Flanagan</a>. Edited by Will Wei. Series editor: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/sam-rega">Sam Rega</a>.<br /></em></p>

This real-life cyborg has an antenna implanted into his skull

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55fc1518dd0895c73a8b46dc-2820-2115/rtr2r15n.jpg" alt="neil harbisson" data-mce-source="Enrique Calvo/Reuters" /><p class="source"><span>Enrique Calvo/Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Some weeks ago, a good friend of mine casually mentioned over sushi that he can't wait to have magnets installed in his fingertips.</p><p>He said he wants to pick up silverware just by touching it.</p><p>At first, I thought the statement was pure fantasy - the kind of harebrained idea this particular friend has become known for in our circle.</p><p><a href="http://www.techinsider.io/what-its-like-to-be-a-cyborg-2015-9">Then I talked to Neil Harbisson</a>, and the idea suddenly seemed less crazy.</p><p>Harbisson is a 32-year-old cyborg. He has an antenna surgically implanted into his skull, which picks up nearby light waves and converts them into sound, allowing him to "hear" color.</p><p>According to Harbisson, "cyborgism" is the way of the future, and I believe him.</p><p>Humans' relationship to technology is growing more intimate by the microsecond. Eventually - Harbisson suspects within the next 10 to 15 years - part-human, part-machine "cyborgs" will become the norm.</p><p>"I think it will happen in the late twenties that I will be able to walk out in the street <span>and it will be normal," Harbisson says of his antenna. "Just as it'll be normal to see someone else with a new body part."</span></p><p>When Harbisson and I spoke, he talked about the Internet as a "bodily sense." In the same way we taste food and feel textures to interact with the world, Harbisson believes humans will use the Internet to understand the world through information and data. </p><p>In reality, this already happens. When we want to know something, we Google it. We outsource our brainpower to the Internet. In Harbisson's case, the internet lets him "perceive" sunrises sent from Australia. He "hears" the colors of the sunrise and the image is right there in his brain, creating the sensation that he's actually there.</p><p>For the general population, cyborgism represents the logical next step in the evolution of tech's role in our lives. </p><p>What's the difference between a fitness-tracking wristband and a microchip that performs the same function, but lives just a few millimeters deeper, underneath your skin?</p><p>The idea may still violate some people's ideas of personhood, but new technologies always make the majority of people uncomfortable at first.</p><p><span>In 1551, Swiss scientist Conrad Gessner </span><a href="https://ceb.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/gesner/gesner.html">panicked</a><span> that humanity would suffocate from the information overload brought on by the printing press. In his 1909 book </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=S3_s8UCXKUcC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=Are+the+Dead+Alive?&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=hBGjU-T9GYX5oASo3YHoBA&amp;ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=Are%20the%20Dead%20Alive%3F&amp;f=false">"Are the Dead Alive?"</a><span> author Fremont Rider questioned whether the voices people were hearing over the phone were actually ghosts. Up until recently,<span> if you used <a href="http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/History-of-Bluetooth.aspx">a hands-free device</a> to talk on the phone, you looked a little crazy.</span></span></p><p><span><span>"At the beginning it was weird to see people talking on their own, and people would laugh or point at others because it looked very weird," Harbisson says. "Now you see people every day talking without using the phone, so it looks like they're talking to themselves. And it's become normal."</span></span></p><p>Soon, chip implants will seem normal, too.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cyborg-neil-harbisson-antenna-2015-6">This real-life cyborg can hear color</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="kxa3k4czraIxd-5ZYTWPqjOvyMR8P0Ip" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'kxa3k4czraIxd-5ZYTWPqjOvyMR8P0Ip',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

After talking with a real life cyborg, I'm convinced 'cyborgism' is the future

<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/game-changers/bionics"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/53d951406da8111a490cebdd-800-75/game-changers-headerbionicsslim.png" border="0" width="800" height="75" /></a></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<script src="//player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e" type="text/javascript"></script>
<div id="ooyalaplayer" style="width: 800px; height: 450px;"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">// </script>
<noscript>&amp;lt;div&amp;gt;Please enable Javascript to watch this video&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;</noscript>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Artist <a href="http://eyeborg.wix.com/cyborg">Neil Harbisson</a> was born completely color blind and sees the world in grayscale. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But even though Neil can't </span><em style="line-height: 1.5em;">see</em><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> color doesn't mean he can't <em>sense</em> it. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That's because Neil Harbisson is a <strong>cyborg</strong> who can <em>hear</em> color.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In 2004, Neil convinced a doctor to </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">implant into his skull an antenna that detects and transposes colors into corresponding tones - allowing him to hear color through bone conduction. He considers it a new body part.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"This is an implant, so it's permanently attached," Neil says. "There's no way of removing it."</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As <span>co-founder of the </span><span></span><a href="http://eyeborg.wix.com/cyborg">Cyborg Foundation</a> and one of</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cyborg-people-who-implanted-tech-2014-8">several known cyborgs on this planet</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">,  Neil expects humans to be more open to the idea of implanting technology into their bodies in the near future.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><em>Produced by </em></span><em style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/will-wei">Will Wei</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/graham-flanagan">Graham Flanagan</a>. Edited by Will Wei. Series editor: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/sam-rega">Sam Rega</a>.</em></p>

This Real-Life Cyborg Has An Antenna Implanted Into His Skull

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/575038dbdd08951c5b8b47ea-570/screen%20shot%202016-06-02%20at%209.01.33%20am.png" alt="Elon Musk" data-mce-source="YouTube/Recode" data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLKof9YSAshgyPqlK-UUYrHfIQaOzFPSL4&amp;v=ZrGPuUQsDjo"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLKof9YSAshgyPqlK-UUYrHfIQaOzFPSL4&amp;v=ZrGPuUQsDjo">YouTube/Recode</a></span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>In today's day-and-age, we're all "already a cyborg."<p>Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said technology has already turned us into cyborgs At&#xa0;Vox Media's Code Conference Wednesday night. And he makes a really interesting&#xa0;point -&#xa0;our ability to have a digital version of ourselves online in the form of emails and social media has given us "super powers" in a way that wasn't possible before.</p><p>"You have more power than the president of the United States had 20 years ago," Musk&#xa0;said. "You can answer any question, you can video conference with anyone, anywhere. You can send messages to millions of people instantly. Just do incredible things."</p><p>Most people when they hear the word cyborg think of people that are half-bionic. Like&#xa0;Neil Harbisson, <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/a-human-cyborg-hears-color-via-antenna-2015-11" target="_blank">the world's first government-recognized human cyborg</a>, who has an&#xa0;antenna implanted in his&#xa0;head that allows him to "hear" colors.</p><p>But Musk contends we should see ourselves as cyborgs just be virtue of how reliant we are on personal technology like phones and laptops.</p><p>And there's potential for us to become even more cyborg-like in the future.</p><p>Musk mentioned a new technology he said companies should be working on called "neural lace," which would <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/elon-musk-on-neural-lace-2016-6" target="_blank">add a digital layer of intelligence to our brains</a>. It's a concept <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/flexible-circuit-has-been-injected-living-brains-180955525/?no-ist" target="_blank">nanotechnologists have been working on</a>, Busines Insider's Jillian D'Onfro <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/elon-musk-on-neural-lace-2016-6" target="_blank">pointed out</a>.</p><p>It's unclear whether neural lace is something we'll see in our lifetime (Musk appears to think so!), but Musk raises an interesting point about what it means to be human in the digital age. Considering how much time we dedicate to our digital persona, it seems fair to say we're all already a cyborg.</p><p>You can watch Musk make his comments here:</p><p><div><iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZrGPuUQsDjo?list=PLKof9YSAshgyPqlK-UUYrHfIQaOzFPSL4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-rocket-third-barge-landing-elon-musk-2016-5">SpaceX just pulled off the greatest hat trick ever</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="pvZTdzMzE6XVuL6aNY4CAoPymTCg5NU9" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'pvZTdzMzE6XVuL6aNY4CAoPymTCg5NU9',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Elon Musk says humans are already cyborgs

<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/game-changers/bionics"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/53d951406da8111a490cebdd-800-75/game-changers-headerbionicsslim.png" border="0" width="800" height="75" /></a></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53eb9f276bb3f7dc12056f53-1200-706/promo2.png" border="0" alt="A bionic chip that allows people to interact with machines"><p class="source"><span>Dangerous Things</span></p><p class="caption">With one chip, we can go from man to machine. What do you want to be able to do?</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>The human body has the potential for amazing feats, but it also has built-in limitations - we can't hear certain tones, we see a limited range of colors, and we can't feel magnetic and electrical fields around us the way some animals do.</p>
<p>Some people choose not to accept those limits.</p>
<p>Neil Harbisson was born without the ability to see color. Now, he can perceive more than 360 colors and even discern the infrared spectrum. Kevin Warwick, the U.K.-based cybernetics professor and author of "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/I-Cyborg-Kevin-Warwick/dp/0252072154" target="_blank">I, Cyborg</a>," was the first person to implant a RFID chip into his arm, which then connected to systems at the University of Reading and could open doors and turn lights on or off. He even connected his nervous system to that of his wife, so they each could feel what the other person was feeling. Amal Graafstra, the founder of <a href="https://dangerousthings.com/" target="_blank">Dangerous Things</a>, sells a kit for $99 that you can buy right now and use to put a RFID chip in your own hand.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53eb89026bb3f74d34056f53-500-341/tattoo1_500.jpg" border="0" alt="digital temporary tattoo" width="400"><p class="source"><span>John Rogers, University of Illinois</span></p><p class="caption">This tattoo can check your heart rate and send that information to a computer.</p></img></div><p></p></div>These characters are at the forefront of the biohacker, grinder, or cyborg movement, but they are not the only ones who have started to experiment with technological body modifications that do far more than a traditional piercing or tattoo.</p>
<p>Some think regular people are closer to accepting biohacking than many realize. Most of us are willing to trust computers to take over brain functions already. Search engines replace our memory for basic facts; Google maps replaces our sense of direction.</p>
<p>Bio- and body-hackers take things a step or two further. Using tattoo needles, scalpels, injection devices, microchips, or just wires, they embrace connectivity and step further into the cybernetic world.</p>
<p>To them, the limit is no longer the body. The limit is the mind, the uses we can come up with for this technology. <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Biohackers look at what technology is capable of and ask a question:</span></p>
<p><strong>What do you want to be able to do?</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Here are six body hacks that let people sense the world around them in new ways.</span></p>
<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53eb9c876da8110b791a32f9-1200-1000/2006-03-30_-_hands.jpg" border="0" alt="chips embedded in a hand" width="400"><p class="source"><span>Dangerous Things</span></p><p class="caption">The hand is popular spot for embedding magnets and RFID chips.</p></img></div><p></p></div>1. Magnetic implants can help you sense electric fields and pick up small metal objects.</strong> Magnets are commonly implanted into the hand or on a finger, allowing users to sense the location of a nearby electrical field, subway, or microwave.</p>
<p>Tim Cannon, one of the founders of biohacking collective <a href="http://www.grindhousewetware.com/" target="_blank">Grindhouse Wetwares</a> - whose slogan is "What would you like to be today?" - <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/superman/2013/03/cyborgs_grinders_and_body_hackers_diy_tools_for_adding_sensory_perceptions.single.html" target="_blank">told Slate that</a> he could tell not only where a current is come from, but could also distinguish between alternating current and direct current. A friend even calls him the "laptop whisperer," because he was able to use his abilities to diagnose a battery problem.</p>
<p><strong>2. Magnets can also transmit sound and more.</strong> Biohacker Rich Lee implanted magnets in his ears that <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/160080-man-implants-magnetic-headphones-becomes-music-cyborg" target="_blank">work as hidden ear buds</a> by picking up a musical signal from a magnetic cord connected to a music player. He told Extreme Tech that he planned on linking these implants to his phone's GPS system so that directions could be transmitted directly to his head. Linked up to a microphone, he could use them as a listening device or phone as well.</p>
<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53eb89966da811141c1a32f9-350-233/tattoolr.jpg" border="0" alt="biohacking temporary tattoo" width="300"><p class="source"><span>UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering</span></p></img></div><p></p></div>3. Temporary digital tattoos can relay vital information about health</strong>. Biohackers are wary about saying that their devices relay health information - most don't want their work to be regulated as medical technology by the Food and Drug Administration, one reason that individuals can't use anesthesia when putting an implant in themselves. But biohacking research has led to the creation of temporary tattoos that can assess vital statistics. <a href="http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1353" target="_blank">Some monitor sweat</a> to gauge physical activity. Others can <a href="http://www.futurity.org/its-electric-wireless-tattoo-sticks-to-skin/" target="_blank">monitor the body's electrical activity, heart rate, and more</a> - and can transmit that data to computers and mobile devices.</p>
<p>Big companies, who are less intimidated by regulation, also seem aware of the potential of these tattoos. A Google-owned company is working on digital tattoos that could connect to smartphones and gaming devices and that could even serve as lie detectors, <a href="http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?PageNum=0&amp;docid=20130297301&amp;IDKey=67084E6A3F15&amp;HomeUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fappft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO2%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsearch-bool.html%2526r%3D1%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526co1%3DAND%2526d%3DPG01%2526s1%3D20130297301.PGNR.%2526OS%3DDN%2F20130297301%2526RS%3DDN%2F20130297301" target="_blank">according to the patent it filed</a>.</p>
<p><strong style="color: #222222; line-height: 22.5px;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53eb8e026bb3f76d44056f54/amal%20graafstra%20rfid%20chip%20functions.gif" border="0" alt="amal graafstra rfid chip functions"><p class="source"><span>Amal Graafstra/Vimeo</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p>
<p><strong>4. RFID Chips let the human body interact with electronic devices in a variety of ways.</strong> For some people, this is a means of unlocking doors, computers, and other devices. One researcher used an implanted chip to spread a computer virus.</p>
<p>An implant like this can connect to payment and security systems, as well as communication tools and so much more. This is one of those modifications where the question is, if you have a device that can interact with almost any machine, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microchip-implants-in-healthy-people-2014-7" target="_blank">what do you want it to do</a>?</p>
<p><strong>5. The Eyeborg allows Neil Harbisson to hear the colors of the world.</strong> A small antenna mounted over Harbisson's head views the colors of the world, including the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum, and vibrates a unique tone that only he can hear, allowing him to perceive the world in color - something he was born without the ability to do. It would take time for someone else to learn to use Harbisson's synesthesia-like approach to viewing the world, but you can <a href="http://eyeborg.wix.com/cyborg#!lab/czm2" target="_blank">download the software</a> to start building your own Eyeborg at home.</p>
<p>Harbisson says becoming a self-identified cyborg led him to found the <a href="http://eyeborg.wix.com/cyborg" target="_blank">Cyborg Foundation</a>, which works to help people extend their senses through technology and defends their right to do so. "I think we are now entering the age of transition into cyborgs," he <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bionic-technology-human-cyborgs-2014-7" target="_blank">told Business Insider</a>. "I'm sure it'll be normal to meet someone and ask 'what are your extra senses?'"</p>
<p><strong>6. Biohacking implants can give you a Spider-Man-like ability to sense movement all around you. </strong>Different devices do this in different ways. Rich Lee says that connecting his ear implants to a range finder can create a sort of echolocation ability, which will hum as an object gets closer to him. A Cyborg Foundation Project called the 360º Sensory Extension vibrates if someone approaches from behind, and can even do so from different sides of the body. Grindhouse Wetwares has a project called <a href="http://www.grindhousewetware.com/bottlenose.html" target="_blank">Bottlenose</a> that captures sonar, ultraviolet, Wi-Fi, and thermal data and transmits information about these invisible fields to implanted magnets.</p>
<p>We have learned so much about how to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-incredible-applications-of-bionics-in-sports-2014-7" target="_blank">fix what's broken</a>, and now we are using that knowledge to hack the body <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-hacking-will-make-us-smarter-and-more-productive-2014-7" target="_blank">and brain</a>. Humans no longer need to be limited to five senses.</p>
<p>So what do you want to be able to do?</p>

6 Strange Body Hacks That Are Actually Useful

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5575ae6e71ca1b050c8b4aba-888-666/brain implant 2.jpg" alt="brain implant 2" data-mce-source="Lieber Research Group, Harvard University" /><p class="source"><span>Lieber Research Group, Harvard University</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Last May, a 34-year-old paralyzed man was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/21/brain-implant-controls-robotic-arm-with-the-power-of-thought">able to drink from a cup unaided</a> using a robotic arm. Other surgeries have allowed the deaf to <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150213145047.htm">hear</a>, the blind to <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/407739/brain-implants-to-restore-vision/">see</a>, and have staved off the debilitating symptoms of <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/deep-brain-stimulation/basics/definition/prc-20019122">neurological illnesses like Parkinson's</a>.</p><p>All of these technologies are made possible by brain implants: electrical devices inserted into or attached to the brain. These implants have sensors or electrodes that can monitor activity, block or electrically stimulate processes in the neural network.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-implants-will-give-us-superpowers-2014-4">Applying these technologies to already-healthy people may even give us superpowers</a> by enhancing our senses. Brain implants may be able to help people sharpen focus and improve moods, and external brain stimulation has already shown some success in helping <a href="http://www.wired.com/2013/05/brain-stimulation-math/">people learn math faster</a>.</p><p>But implants right now require invasive surgery, and are often made of steel or other metals that cause scarring. Brain implant technology is hampered by how long implants can stay in the brain without causing damage or losing functionality.</p><h3>A game-changing implant</h3><p>Now a tiny new brain implant makes two big strides in this technology: It can be <a href="http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2015.115.html">injected directly into the brain from a syringe</a>, minimizing damage to brain tissue and can be applied without invasive surgery.</p><p>Not only that, but the flexible mesh imitates the interconnecting structure of the neural network and the softness of brain tissue, and is made of materials that the immune system is less likely to reject, so it seems to create less scarring in the brain when it has been inserted.</p><p>That's important because when the body detects one of today's brain implants, the brain tissue <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4139652/">surrounds the foreign object with scar tissue</a>, causing it to malfunction. The scarring can also cause damage and neuron loss in the area where the implant sits.</p><p>The researchers described the innovation <a href="http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2015.115.html">in the journal Nature Nanotechnology on June 8</a>. They were able to inject the mesh into the brains of anesthetized mice through a tiny hole in the skull and record brain activity with electrodes and sensors on the mesh.</p><p>"If you look at implanted electronics in the brain over the past 10 to 20 years, all suffer from a common problem," said study author Charles Lieber, of Harvard University. "Electronic probes, in research and in medicine, create scarring in brain tissues. There's a mismatch if they're stiff and this leads to an immune response... [they are] not stable over time."</p><h3>How it works</h3><p>The incredibly small mesh implant has "very fine metal lines" of circuitry embedded, with electrodes and sensors mounted at the intersections of the wires. By curling the flexible implant, the researchers were able to fit a 1.5 centimeter wide square of mesh up into a syringe with an opening less than half a millimeter wide.</p><p>Once injected into the brain, the mesh unfolds to about 80% of its original shape without loss of function. The external wires of the mesh can then be plugged to a computer to monitor and stimulate individual neurons.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5575c7cff7b1055a008b4cb5-802-601/screen shot 2015-06-08 at 12.46.41 pm.png" alt="Screen Shot 2015 06 08 at 12.46.41 PM" width="801" height="600" data-mce-source="Lieber Research Group, Harvard University" /><p class="source"><span>Lieber Research Group, Harvard University</span></p><p class="caption">The mesh implant unfurls in the brain after injection.</p></div><p></p></div></p><p>Lieber said the secret to the immune system's acceptance of the implant is because of its flexible and open structure. Up to 95% of the mesh is open space, allowing individual neurons to communicate with adjacent neurons uninterrupted. The implant's design was inspired by another <a href="http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2012/nanoelectronics-and-tissues-0827">2012 study</a> published in Nature Materials where Lieber was able to grow cells on a tiny mesh-like scaffold.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5575fc2ef7b1057e1a8b4acb-590-869/screen shot 2015-06-08 at 4.30.42 pm.png" alt="Mouse Brain implant" data-mce-source="Lieber Research Group, Harvard University" /><p class="source"><span>Lieber Research Group, Harvard University</span></p><p class="caption">The implant can be injected into the brain from a syringe.</p></div><p></p></div></div>"The idea was this material is an open structure... which allows the three dimensional interconnection of the brain to work right, and without doing massive surgery," he said.</p><p>The study showed that the mesh didn't trigger an immune response in a five-week period after injection.</p><h3>The future of brain implants</h3><p>Lieber hopes that<strong> this mesh might someday be used in humans to treat neurological illness or brain damage caused by strokes,</strong> but said the next step is to test it for a longer period of time, maybe up to a year.</p><p>"We're up to three months so far in this ongoing study," he said. "There's been no change in the response and it still has good recording behavior, unlike other devices where they either lose the signal or there is so much scarring over time that you have to move the implant's position."</p><p>If the implants are successful they would be a better option for people who get long-term implants to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.</p><p>This treatment, called <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/deep-brain-stimulation/basics/definition/prc-20019122">deep brain stimulation</a>, delivers stimulation from implants to regulate the electrical misfirings in the brain that cause these involuntary movements. But like many implants, the probes used in deep brain stimulation can trigger the development of scar tissues.</p><p>Developing long-term implants that don't get rejected by the immune system could pave the way to using the technology for enhancement, rather than just treatment. Artist Neil Harbisson has an antenna implanted that treats his colorblindness, but it allows him to experience color in a way that no one ever has - he says he can hear it.</p><p>The implanted antenna detects colors and assigns a tone to each color, allowing Harbisson to "hear" color through bone conduction.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5575ef0df7b1054b0c8b4c0d-1127-845/neil-harbisson-gc-thumb-4x3-1.jpg" alt="Neil Harbisson GC Thumb 4x3 1" data-mce-source="Will Wei, Business Insider" data-mce-caption="Neil Harbisson is a cyborg who can hear color through his antenna." /><p class="source"><span>Will Wei, Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Neil Harbisson is a cyborg who can hear color through his antenna.</p></div><p></p></div></div>This type of enhancement might be common in just a few more years. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is already <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&amp;mode=form&amp;id=8cb5225b349630c17a8befd95364c80e&amp;tab=core&amp;_cview=1">working on brain implants that could restore memories and treat brain damage</a>. Having a brain implant to remember facts would greatly enhance our abilities to take tests and perform everyday work.</p><p>That might be possible in the future, when tiny brain implants can give us abilities that extend beyond our biological limits. Ray Kurzweil believes <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-kurzweil-thinks-well-all-be-cyborgs-by-2030-2015-6">we'll able to access the internet with our minds using DNA nanobots</a> in just 15 short years.</p><p>As brain implants shrink and become safer, that might not be such a crazy prediction.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gopro-video-poached-egg-boiling-water-2015-5">Mesmerizing underwater video of an egg being poached</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="czYXR3dDohtuyYSuvZM9ZScGsXY5jyad" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'czYXR3dDohtuyYSuvZM9ZScGsXY5jyad',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

A new, game-changing technology can put electronics directly into the brain

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55f170c1dd0895e10a8b46cd-1200-600/ti_graphics_cyborg%20illustration_2x1.png" alt="TI_Graphics_Cyborg Illustration_2x1" data-mce-source="Skye Gould/Tech Insider"><p class="source"><span>Skye Gould/Tech Insider</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p>A lot was going on during the week of March 22, 2004.</p><p>"Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed" was the No. 1 movie in the US. "Yeah!" by Usher, featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris, was at the top of the music charts.</p><p>And 21-year-old Neil Harbisson was getting a metal antenna surgically implanted into his skull.</p><p>A total of 4,189 days have passed since that surgery, and not a single one has gone by that Neil, now 32, hasn't spoken to at least one person on the street about the long, curved cable that slopes over his head. Sometimes it's a rude comment strangers spit at him, Neil told me recently. Sometimes they're genuinely curious.</p><p>That has to be exhausting, I say.</p><p>"Yes," he&#xa0;sighs. "But I have to get used to it."</p><p>There is a name for people like Neil, who are part human and part machine.</p><p>Neil is a cyborg.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55e9e0dfdd089515048b469a-3500-2333/rtr4e6tl.jpg" alt="neil harbisson" data-mce-source="Ints Kalnins/Reuters"><p class="source"><span>Ints Kalnins/Reuters</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As a cyborg, Neil is one of an uncounted, though growing, population of people who hope to extend the paltry five senses we humans are gifted at birth. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Generally speaking, cyborgs&#xa0;want to experience a heightened reality. Some put <a href="http://www.popsci.com/swedish-company-puts-rfid-chips-employees">microchips under their skin</a> to replace lock-and-key entries of their homes and cars. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/07/tech/brain-memory-implants-humans/">Others use brain stimulation</a> to improve their focus.&#xa0;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Neil, a British-born, Catalan-raised musician and activist&#xa0;who now lives in New York City, has decided his antenna - known as an Eyeborg - will be his ticket to higher planes.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Once simply a tool to help him overcome his congenital color blindness, the antenna has been upgraded over time.&#xa0;The camera on the end picks up nearby colors and converts the light waves into corresponding sound waves, whose frequencies Neil has memorized. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Neil still can't <em>see</em> color, but he says the antenna lets him hear and feel it.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The most recent upgrade came in 2013, when Neil's sensor got rewired to pick up Bluetooth. Now that he has an internet connection, Neil can sync the sensor with external devices in the same way a smartphone can play&#xa0;music wirelessly through a speaker. He&#xa0;says this enables him to&#xa0;receive color from other parts of the world - or completely outside it.&#xa0;</span></p><p>"There's someone in Australia now that could use his phone and send live images of the sunrise to my head. I'd be talking to you now, but I'd be perceiving a sunrise," Neil says. "With my mobile phone I can connect to NASA's International Space Station and perceive the colors live from space."</p><p>Since I am completely unable to conceptualize that idea, I ask Neil to try and clarify what he means by "perceive."</p><p>"To me, color is not visual," he says. "Color is an inner perception. Depending on the combinations of colors, I imagine something visual. So if I hear specific hues that sound very similar to a supermarket, then I suddenly feel that I'm in a supermarket. Or if someone sends the colors of a sunrise, I can imagine and visualize the sunrise because it has a very specific sound."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55f170c1dd0895e10a8b46ce-3446-2115/rtr2r15n.jpg" alt="neil harbisson" data-mce-source="Enrique Calvo/Reuters"><p class="source"><span>Enrique Calvo/Reuters</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Mastering that skill is proving tricky.<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"It's overwhelming" he explains. "I have to get used to hearing color permanently, even when I sleep, since the colors from space never stop. I have to get used to that, and I think it will take around two years."</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Once he has that under his belt, he plans to install&#xa0;</span><a href="http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-05/installing-tiny-turbine-bloodstream-could-power-implanted-medical-devices-indefinitely">small turbines in his blood vessels</a><span>&#xa0;so that he can charge the antenna with the energy produced by his own body.</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"The sensor has its own evolution," he says.</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>In the past that has made traveling around the world quiet the hassle.</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"In airports it can be a bit stressful because they don't like technology," he tells me. "So if you <em>are</em> technology, then they don't like you."</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Living in New York City leaves&#xa0;Neil with no shortage of social encounters.</span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>&#xa0;People lob insults from across the street, while kids rush up wide-eyed.&#xa0;</span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Quiet&#xa0;social gatherings suddenly find new life whenever Neil walks in the room. Even if the guy with the antenna isn't talking about it, someone else probably is.</span></span></p><p>And right now, that's what Neil wants: a conversation.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55f170c1dd0895e10a8b46cf-3500-2261/rtr2r1f2.jpg" alt="neil harbisson" data-mce-source="Enrique Calvo/Reuters"><p class="source"><span>Enrique Calvo/Reuters</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In 2010, Neil co-founded the <a href="http://cyborgism.wix.com/cyborg">Cyborg Foundation</a> with fellow cyborg <a href="http://cyborgism.wix.com/cyborg">Moon Ribas</a>. Moon has a seismic sensor implanted in her elbow that connects to online seismographs. Whenever an earthquake strikes around the world, a vibration lets Moon know.</span><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Neil admits the Cyborg Foundation's stated goals - of helping people become cyborgs, defending cyborg rights, and promoting cyborgism as an art movement - are still in their infancy.</span></p><p>"Interest is not enough," he says. "What we need are people willing to become cyborgs."</p><p>But Neil is anything but pessimistic. Disruptive technology always makes people uneasy.</p><p>In 1551, Swiss scientist Conrad Gessner <a href="https://ceb.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/gesner/gesner.html">panicked</a> that humanity would suffocate beneath the information overload brought on by the printing press. In his 1909 book <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=S3_s8UCXKUcC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=Are+the+Dead+Alive?&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=hBGjU-T9GYX5oASo3YHoBA&amp;ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=Are%20the%20Dead%20Alive%3F&amp;f=false">"Are the Dead Alive?"</a> author Fremont Rider questioned whether the voices people were hearing over the phone were actually ghosts. And only until recently, if you used a hands-free device to talk on the phone you were considered a weirdo. (Some still hold that opinion.)</p><p>There's further evidence of early adopters. Futurist Zoltan Istvan is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/futurist-presidential-candidate-zoltan-istvan-is-driving-a-giant-coffin-across-america-to-defeat-death-and-win-the-white-house-2015-7">running for president</a> as a member of the transhumanist party, and he plans on dropping a "cyborg bill of rights" off at the White House. He told Tech Insider that a key element of his platform is "morphological freedom": As in, you should be able to modify your body in any way, so long as it doesn't hurt anybody, as Neil is doing.&#xa0;</p><p>By the late 2020s, Neil expects that cyborgs like him will be in great company.</p><p>"I will be able to walk out in the street, and it will be normal," he says. "Just as it'll be normal to see someone else with a new body part."</p><p><div><script height="800px" width="1200px" src="http:http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e&amp;ec=kxa3k4czraIxd-5ZYTWPqjOvyMR8P0Ip"></script></div></p><p>That transition may already be afoot with the advent of wearable technology. Even 10 years ago, if you wanted to keep track of how many miles you'd run that day or how many calories you'd consumed, you needed separate devices and the time to tabulate it all. Now you can store that information in your phone, watch, bracelet, tablet, or computer and have the data available immediately.</p><p><strong>"The next stage of wearable technology will be biologically united with us," Neil says.</strong> The internet won't just be this ethereal force that disappears once we put our devices to sleep. It'll be a direct extension of our existing senses.&#xa0;</p><p>To the uninitiated, that idea could sound totally frivolous. Surely the world is awesome on its own, and tinkering needlessly with what comes stock in the human body is both risky and a waste of time. Neil freely admits, for example, that he doesn't want to live forever - <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/how-immortality-and-life-extension-research-could-help-the-world-2015-8">a common goal of the future-obsessed.</a></p><p>The deeper truth is that Neil's goal of advancing his senses is couched <em>directly</em> in his mortality. He knows he'll die. He just refuses to accept the limits of human perception as it's currently presented.</p><p>"Anything you've already seen or heard - if you add a new sense, suddenly reality becomes new," he says. "It's a new way of exploring life."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cyborg-neil-harbisson-antenna-2015-6">This real-life cyborg can hear color</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="kxa3k4czraIxd-5ZYTWPqjOvyMR8P0Ip" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'kxa3k4czraIxd-5ZYTWPqjOvyMR8P0Ip',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

What it's like to be a cyborg

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5571e82b71ca1b15008b4a8c-803-602/ray_kurzweil.jpg" alt="Ray_kurzweil" data-mce-source="Ed Schipul/Flickr" /><p class="source"><span>Ed Schipul/Flickr</span></p><p class="caption">Ray Kurzweil at Exponential Finance conference.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Imagine accessing Wikipedia just by thinking about it. It sounds like <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> fiction now, but futurist and Google engineer Ray Kurzweil thinks that reality is just a few years away.</p><p>At the Exponential Finance conference on June 3, he <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/03/technology/ray-kurzweil-predictions/">predicted that humans will be cyborgs by 2030</a>, according to CNNMoney.</p><p>"Our thinking then will be a hybrid of biological and non-biological thinking," Kurzweil <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ray-kurzweil-human-brains-could-be-connected-cloud-by-2030-1504403">said</a>. "We're going to gradually merge and enhance ourselves. In my view, that's the nature of being human - we transcend our limitations."</p><p>Kurzweil predicted that, in just 15 years, humans will actually be part human, part computer. With the help of tiny <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dna-based-nanobots-inserted-in-a-cockroach-2014-4">nanobots made of DNA</a>, he says our mind will be able to connect to the cloud.</p><p>DNA nanobots (yes, such things exist) are less likely to be rejected by the body's immune system than traditional hardware since they're made of biological material. Researchers have already used them to <a href="http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/dna-nanobots-will-seek-and-destroy-cancer-cells">target and destroy cancer cells</a> as well as <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/25/tech/make-create-innovate-fossil-dna-data-storage/">store data</a>.</p><p>But Kurzweil thinks that this technology could send emails and videos directly to the brain, or even allow us to back up our thoughts and memories.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55722261f7b10510008b4bba-1162-871/neil-harbisson-gc-thumb-4x3-1.jpg" alt="Neil Harbisson GC Thumb 4x3 1" data-mce-source="Will Wei, Business Insider" data-mce-caption="Neil Harbisson is a cyborg who can hear color through his antenna." /><p class="source"><span>Will Wei, Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Cloudy with a chance of cyborgs, like Neil Harbisson.</p></div><p></p></div></div>"Twenty years from now, we'll have nanobots, because another exponential trend is the shrinking of technology," Kurzweil explained in an <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_get_ready_for_hybrid_thinking/transcript?language=en#t-450574">2014 Ted talk</a> about growing beyond our brain's physical limitations. "They'll go into our brain through the capillaries and basically connect our neocortex to a synthetic neocortex in the cloud providing an extension of our neocortex."</p><h2>Um... really?</h2><p>Kurzweil's predictions come with caveats, and even a few warnings. Even if this is possible, having our minds completely melded with the internet opens them up to issues like hacking and other security concerns.</p><p>Imagine how dangerous a computer virus or hacker would be if our minds were connected to the internet: Someone could steal or corrupt our memories.</p><p>Is the potential benefit worth the risk? Kurzweil seems to think so: "As I wrote starting 20 years ago, technology is a double-edged sword," Kurzweil <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ray-kurzweil-human-brains-could-be-connected-cloud-by-2030-1504403">said</a>. "Fire kept us warm and cooked our food but also burnt down our houses. Every technology has had its promise and peril."</p><h2>Is this technology even possible?</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5572219ef7b1055a008b4bbb-1816-1362/2926259123_43338e3ff1_o.jpg" alt="brainstem" data-mce-source="Jeff Lichtman/Harvard University via WBUR" data-mce-caption="An image of a human brainstem illuminated with fluorescent proteins." /><p class="source"><span>Jeff Lichtman/Harvard University via WBUR</span></p><p class="caption">The brain. It's complicated.</p></div><p></p></div></div>While the idea that technology is constantly improving exponentially sounds true on the surface, that's not going to be the main issue when it comes to getting our brains online.</p><p>Scientists warn that we've barely <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-we-know-about-the-brain-2015-5">scratched the surface of understanding how our own minds work</a>. To think we can infiltrate or link these innumerably complex biological computers with the cloud is fundamentally unsound, some researchers say.</p><p>"Theories like Kurzweil's are at odds with biology," Robert Breezing, the author of "Psychotherapy of Character," wrote in <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-theater-the-brain/201406/ray-kurzweil-s-hybrid-thinking-misunderstands-the-brain">Psychology Today</a>. "This always lead to magical thinking and false beliefs. Kurzweil is the same guy who believes that he can bring his father back from the dead. That will not happen. This is an anti-biological fantasy."</p><h2>Does that mean it won't happen?</h2><p>Kurzweil's made some hard-to-believe predictions before. Some of them have turned out to be true, though, <a href="http://bigthink.com/endless-innovation/why-ray-kurzweils-predictions-are-right-86-of-the-time">about 86% by his own calculations</a>.</p><p>He once predicted a machine that would <a href="http://www.strangerdimensions.com/2014/02/24/googles-ray-kurzweil-computers-will-behave-like-real-people-2029/">beat a human in a game of chess</a>, for example - that happened in 1996.</p><p>Other Kurzwelian predictions have fallen short. Take <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/03/21/ray-kurzweil-defends-his-2009-predictions/">self-driving cars</a>: He anticipated they'd be a common sight by 2009. That has yet to happen, but self-driving cars <em>do</em> exist and it seems inevitable they'll wheel into people's driveways at some point.</p><p>Kurzweil might be even more erroneously optimistic when it comes to connecting our brains to the Internet. Even if it's eventually possible, however, that doesn't mean it won't be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-initiative-ethical-issues-in-neuroscience-2015-3">ethically fraught</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cyborg-neil-harbisson-implanted-antenna-skull-2015-2">This real-life cyborg has an antenna implanted into his skull</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="kxa3k4czraIxd-5ZYTWPqjOvyMR8P0Ip" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'kxa3k4czraIxd-5ZYTWPqjOvyMR8P0Ip',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

You Searched For "Neil Harbisson" and got 10 results

Color-Blind Man Is Now A Cyborg Who Can Hear Color

Megan Rose Dickey

I talked with a real life cyborg, and now I'm convinced 'cyborgism' is the future

Chris Weller

This real-life cyborg has an antenna implanted into his skull

Will Wei

After talking with a real life cyborg, I'm convinced 'cyborgism' is the future

Chris Weller

This Real-Life Cyborg Has An Antenna Implanted Into His Skull

Will Wei

Elon Musk says humans are already cyborgs

Danielle Muoio

6 Strange Body Hacks That Are Actually Useful

Kevin Loria

A new, game-changing technology can put electronics directly into the brain

Guia Del Prado

What it's like to be a cyborg

Chris Weller

Ray Kurzweil thinks we'll all be cyborgs by 2030

Guia Del Prado