> EVERYDAY CHALLENGES IN A CYBORG’S LIFE
WE’VE TALKED ABOUT HOW ANTENNA HELPS YOU, BUT WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES YOU’RE FACING AS THE WORLD’S FIRST CYBORG?
They’re mostly social challenges, because people laugh when someone says they do not identify themselves as 100 per cent humans. We live with many species that are not human and we should respect them. Bioethical communities are also not accepting these new organs and senses being implanted in a body. From the ethical side, they don’t accept incorporation of human and technology and argue that it is not ethical to add a non-human sense to the human body, especially if it wasn’t a preexisting organ.
THE WORLD GOVERNMENT SUMMIT SHED LIGHT ON THE ETHICAL QUESTIONS THAT TECHNOLOGY AND AI WILL RAISE IN THE FUTURE. WHERE DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE THE LIMIT?
I think there should be no limit to designing ourselves. I think governments should regulate how to use these new senses, not how many sense we should have. There are already regulations as to how we can use our eyes and ears, and I think governments should now address new citizens who will have the new organs.
HOW DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE BETWEEN ROBOTS AND HUMANS? DO YOU SEE THEM LIVING PEACEFULLY TOGETHER?
People are afraid of robots invading us, but we should talk about AI because they are already becoming our new species. Think of Sophia, the world’s first humanoid who has the Saudi citizenship. Once we start having robots, we have to live with them and learn to respect them. We are the species that has been treating others badly, such as animals and we will have to learn to respect other species.
WHAT ARE SOME COMMON REACTIONS YOU GET FROM PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR ANTENNA?
It’s been changing. Years ago, people thought it was plain weird and strange, but now there is a conversation. People are becoming more curious and are thinking of adding a new sense themselves. They feel more connected to technology that they start referring to it in the first-person perspective. Instead of saying “My phone is running out of battery,” they say, “I’m running our of battery.
DO YOU SEE YOURSELF STARTING YOUR OWN FAMILY IN THE FUTURE? AND WILL YOU ENCOURAGE THEM TO BECOME CYBORGS?
I see myself adopting children who don’t have families. What I think should be done in the first 18 years of a person’s life is we should teach our children to extend their pre-existing senses. We have a lot of senses like balance and weight that we are not trained to use. Schools focus on teaching children sight and smell but we should learn to identify our senses. When I have soup, I would’ve liked to know its ingredients by just tasting it. Then at the age of 18, people should freely decide whether they want to have a new sense.