Sensory enhancement

Abstract

Sensory enhancement is a form of human enhancement that aims to extend the sensory capabilities of a person beyond what is possible for a normal human. Sensory enhancement can consist in either an enhancement that improves a sense or that extends that sense to perceive light, sound, tactile stimuli, or chemical traces that are beyond the human range. A sensory enhancement may also add a new sense, such as electroreception or modulate a sense so that it can perform completely new functions, such as echolocation (biosonar). This chapter argues that sensory enhancement could be implemented in mainly two ways: either via the application of digital technology or by genetic engineering of the human body. The potential of augmented reality (AR) and of brain-computer Interface (BCI) technology is also explored in the section on digital enhancement. The section on genetic engineering will mainly be concerned with the potential of horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Three arguments on the normative aspects of sensory enhancement are also presented in this chapter. The first considers the instrumental value of being able to perceive new forms of artistic expression. The second concerns the idea of diversity and whether sensory enhancement could increase human diversity. The third argument departs from the “capabilities approach,” formulated by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, and sketches out the position that we may be deprived in comparison to some possible future enhanced people, even if we do not regret being so.