Soft and hard cyborgs
The difference between soft and hard science-fiction is usually marked by attitudes and tendencies towards their subject matter. You could argue that a similar distinction exists in the area of technological enhancement, with difference often polarising around the application of specific technologies. The use of RFID in the area of personal utility is a great example of contrasting attitudes to the integration of the biological and the artificial that you could arguably classify as “soft” versus “hard”.
Royal College of Art graduate Benjamin Parton, recently created OI, a wearable oyster card that encases the RFID chip inside fashionable rings or bracelets.
Given the fact that the card has been in existence for 8 years, it’s surprising that no one has thought of this before. Perhaps the “card” is such a simple, ubiquitous item that there is a tendency to believe it is self-contained and not simply a container for technology with a much smaller form factor (the chip inside the oyster card is approximately the same size as the “D” next to the Mayor of London).
The wearable designs created by Benjamin are undoubtedly cool – as a comic book fan I’d be more then happy sporting a magical science ring in the style of Green Lantern – but they probably won’t go far enough for some.
Kevin Warwick famously became the “world’s first cyborg“, a somewhat debatable title, when he had an RFID chip implanted into his arm in order to open doors and control devices nearby. The purpose of his experiment was to test if the body would accept such an implant and how practical the sub-cutaneous chip would be. As such, it was conducted under what you might loosely call “laboratory conditions” and the results closely observed. There are plenty of hobbyists however who don’t need the excuse of being a cybernetics researcher in order to try this sort of thing out on themselves.
Amal Graafstra, author of the book “RFID Toys,” asked doctors to place implants in his hands. A cosmetic surgeon used a scalpel to place a microchip in his left hand, and his family doctor injected a chip into his right hand using a veterinary Avid injector kit. Graafstra uses the implants to open his home and car doors and to log on to his computer. (via Select Sources - thanks Marcin!)
I’ve always thought that the term cyborg ought to be inclusive enough to cover any type of physical enhancement that adds to the natural abilities a person is born with. For example, I’m short-sighted and wear glasses (or contact lenses when feeling a bit more vain) which I you could consider a kind of low-level augmentation, or cyborg-lite. At the opposite end of the scale, there is a man walking round London right now with a fully artificial heart keeping him alive, an absolutely amazing fact when you stop to think about it.
As the pages of the everyday sci-fi novels unfold around us, there is a question to consider: which will you choose, the soft or hard option?
(PS: a fascinating factiod I found researching this post that was to good to ignore – Kevin Warwick was also responsible for Jimmy Saville’s mechanical chair that served him cups of tea in between handing out Jim’ll Fix It badges!)
