Rob Spence is a documentary filmmaker. He’s also a self-described cyborg. His latest project, Deus Ex: The Eyeborg Documentary launched in conjunction with the launch of a video game called Deus Ex: Human Revolution. In it, Rob looks at the current state of cybernetics, and asks how far off a Deus Ex-like future might be.
This afternoon, Nora talked to Rob about the documentary, his Eyeborg project, and the line between treatment and augmentation. You can hear the full, uncut interview below, or download the MP3. [runs 12:46]
Play audio:
If you like hearing these extended interviews, why not subscribe to Spark Plus? You’ll get regular weekly episodes, plus additional blog-only content like this. [Subscribe via RSS] or [Subscribe with iTunes]
I totally dig these longer interviews . . . so satisfying to throw one on and knit away. Thank-you. What I especially appreciated about this interview was that the interviewee was directly affected by the technology being discussed. I've noticed that the big conversations about therapeutic value versus enhancement tend to be dominated by the whole, the healthy. I often retreat from forming a moral opinion on a lot of prosthetic and transplant technologies because I simply do not know what it is like to experience the catastrophic loss of an eye or arm. Given the radical impact of experience on epistemology, good for you for taking a look at this issue from Spence's perspective.
Glad to hear you like them, Erin!
In regard to the subjects discussed with Rob Spence, I commend to your – and your readers' and listeners' attention – a couple of songs by Jonathan Coulton (with whom, except for being a fan, I have no affiliation), available via free download from Popular Science (though if you wish to support the artist, you can buy them from his site).
"Todd the T1000" and "Better" are particularly apropos to this discussion, though of course all of the songs are excellent.
Excellent interview!
A few weeks ago, I read MACHINE MAN, a novel by Max Barry in which the protagonist loses a leg in an industrial accident. Deciding he’s unhappy with the prosthetic legs available to him, he builds himself a better leg (with WiFi!) … but of course, then he’s stuck with one, inadequate human leg and his far superior “better” leg. I’ll give you three guesses what happens next. The novel is somewhat tongue-in-cheek in the way it follows this progression to its conclusion, but it really digs down and addresses some of the big questions this sort of transhumanist approach to augmentation raises.