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Seriously...

Meet the Cyborgs

Seriously...

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.1885 Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2017

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Frank Swain can hear Wi-Fi.

Diagnosed with early deafness aged 25, Frank decided to turn his misfortune to his advantage by modifying his hearing aids to create a new sense. He documented the start of his journey three years ago on Radio 4 in 'Hack My Hearing'.

Since then, Frank has worked with sound artist Daniel Jones to detect and sonify Wi-Fi connections around him. He joins a community around the world who are extending their experience beyond human limitations.

In 'Meet the Cyborgs' Frank sets out to meet other people who are hacking their bodies. Neil Harbisson and Moon Rebus run The Cyborg Foundation in Barcelona, which welcomes like-minded body hackers from around the world. Their goal is not just to use or wear technology, but to re-engineer their bodies.

Frank meets the creators of Cyborg Nest, a company promising to make anyone a cyborg. They have recently launched their first product - The North Sense - a computer chip anchored to body piercings in the chest, which vibrates when it faces north.

"I'm a 51 year old bald guy, with no tattoos or piercings" says co-founder Scott Cohen. "This was never a place I thought I'd end up in. Everyone's talking about machine learning, but what we're trying to do is make our brains smarter."

Of course, the marriage of technology and biology is commonplace in medicine, from pacemakers to IUDs. But now 'citizen hackers' are modifying their medical equipment to add new functions. Dana Lewis from Seattle has created her own 'artificial pancreas' to help manage her Type 1 diabetes and released the code online.

But should limits be placed on self-experimentation? And will cybernetic implants eventually become as ubiquitous as smart phones?

Features music composed for The North Sense by Andy Dragazis.

Presenter: Frank Swain Producer: Michelle Martin.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the BBC.

0:06.0

E-mails, telephones, maybe elections.

0:11.0

But hands, your hearing, even your brain, what if they were hacked?

0:17.0

Body hacking isn't just science fiction, it could become a reality, because some people are choosing not only to use and

0:26.2

wear technology but to become it. To put it inside their bodies.

0:32.9

It was quite a profound experience.

0:35.1

I thought it would be no big deal, feel a buzz.

0:38.5

But it wasn't.

0:39.4

It was an overwhelming experience.

0:43.6

My outcomes are fantastic.

0:45.9

The big difference for me was the quality of life at night of feeling safe to go to sleep at night,

0:51.9

not having nightmares about dying in my sleep.

0:55.0

I'm Riana Dylan and this is seriously. Now let's meet the cyborgs.

1:04.0

My name is Frank Swain. I'm 34 years old and I can hear Wi-Fi.

1:10.0

You can listen in on my world in just a minute.

1:12.0

But first, back to the beginning. You can listen in on my world in just a minute.

1:12.8

But first, back to the beginning.

1:14.8

It all started when I was diagnosed with early onset hearing loss

1:20.9

when I was just 25 years old. The audiologist told me that they didn't normally

1:26.2

see this level of hearing loss in people under 40, so it was a huge shock. During my appointment I asked if there was anything I could do to save my hearing.

1:37.0

To be honest with you, there isn't, obviously if you're exposed to loud sounds, it will aggravate your hearing loss even more.

1:43.4

Yeah, other than monitoring your hearing, there's not much you can do.

...

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