Featured Image Credit: Rosdiana Ciaravolo/Contributor/Getty
The world's first 'human cyborg' was implanted with an antenna in 2004 and you've likely never heard of him.
While we've been so caught up in the rapid advances in AI technology, like Grok's digital companions and Tesla’s plans to bring household robots into our homes, many people might have missed the fact that the world's very first official cyborg actually became a reality quite some time ago.
Cyborgs have long been staples of science fiction, appearing in many titles like Doctor Who, and the 80s classics of Terminator and RoboCop.
But in 2004, one man turned fiction into reality through a radical surgical procedure that fundamentally changed how he experiences the world.
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Neil Harbisson was born with achromatopsia, a rare condition affecting one in 33,000 people that leaves him unable to see colours.
Instead, he perceives the world in what he calls 'greyscale', which leaves him only able to see black, white and shades of grey.
As a student, Harbisson met Plymouth University cybernetics expert Adam Montandon, who developed a system using headphones, a webcam and a laptop to convert light waves into sounds, allowing Harbisson to 'hear' colours for the first time.
Spain's bioethical committees repeatedly rejected Harbisson's request for surgery that he hoped would merge technology with his body.
Eventually, Harbisson convinced anonymous doctors to perform the operation which involved removing part of his skull so an antenna could be implanted. The bone could then grow over the device.
The 2004 surgery attached what Harbisson calls his 'eyeborg' – an antenna that extends from the back of his head and converts light waves into vibrations he can hear through bone conduction rather than his ears.
The antenna also connects to nearby devices and the internet, and can even receive phone calls.
"I don't feel like I'm using technology, I feel like I am technology," said the self-described 'cyborg artist'.
However, the transition wasn't easy.
According to documentary filmmaker Carey Born, who made Cyborg: A Documentary about Harbisson, he experienced severe headaches for five weeks after the surgery and needed five months to fully adapt to the antenna.
When filmmaker Born first encountered him, she described being 'gobsmacked and astonished' by his story. In the film, Born confirmed that Harbisson also suffered 'depression, because, like when they did trepanning [a surgical intervention where a hole is drilled into the skull] in the 60s and 70s'.
Born added: "People got really big side effects - he had that as well."
Twenty years later, Harbisson's antenna represents one of the earliest successful attempts to permanently integrate technology with human biology.
