Synesthesia is the neurological phenomenon where stimulating one sense triggers a response in another, resulting in experiences like tasting scents or seeing sounds. In the context of nature, these merged perceptions are seen as abnormalities that rarely afford any evolutionary advantage, but As David Pescovitz writes in the latest issue of Good, learning how to control these alternative pathways could have profound implications. Individuals who are without one or more of their senses could further heighten their existing perceptions of the world or those that have lost limbs could be given “feeling” in their prosthetic limbs.
Tapping into this capacity requires the design of intelligent, wearable devices that could eventually develop into technologies that are embedded into the body or beneath the skin, a leap that brings us closer to realizing the Kurzweilian future of Transhumanism.
Pescovitz explains his research at the Institute for the Future:
[M]y colleagues and I have spent the last few months exploring the notion that “everything is programmable,” or will be soon. The idea is that emerging technologies—from pervasive computers to synthetic biology—are making it possible to program our bodies and our worlds to desired specifications. Increasingly, we are looking at the entire world through a computational lens.
We’re already seeing the emergence of early entrants into this space from sweaters that correct a wearer’s posture to augmented reality applications that enable us to interface with our physical environments in entirely new ways. Pescovitz points to two projects happening within the area of “second sight” that push the possibilities even further. Wicab is working to create a vision prosthetic that converts images from a video camera into tactile responses while a researcher in Tel Aviv is exploring the ways that cells in plants respond to light as a bridge to building “seeing skin“.
While the early goal of this technology is the restoration of missing or undeveloped senses, in all likelihood, it will eventually spill over into the general populace in far reaching ways. Leading us to wonder if maybe the sixth sense just has been invented yet.
[image via jasonr611 on Flickr]
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