From a Science Fiction to the Reality

Abstract

This study deals with young people’s attitudes towards and social acceptance of “cyborg technology” including wearables and insideables (or implantable devices) to enhance human ability in Japan as part of the international research project on cyborg ethics, taking Japanese socio-cultural characteristics surrounding cyborg technology into consideration. Those subjects were investigated through questionnaire surveys of Japanese university students, which was conducted in November and December 2016. The survey results demonstrated respondents’ relatively low resistance to using wearables and insideables to improve human physical ability and intellectual power. On the other hand, the morality of insideables were questioned by respondents. In various aspects, statistically significant differences in attitudes towards the technologies between genders were detected.