Neil Harbisson is the first cyborg man in history, thanks to an electronic eye that allows him to “hear” colours. We interviewed him and discovered that he also has an environmentalist soul.
The artist Neil Harbisson was born unable to see colours. He suffers from a rare visual condition called achromatopsia. Then something changed, and from the age of 21 he has lived with a technological device attached to his brain that is capable of transforming colours into frequencies, into sounds. A new condition that has allowed him to blend the arts and create music from everything colourful he encounters in life: from a human face to a plate of food, from a supermarket shelf to a tree. He can even listen to the music of a painting, of a Picasso. A condition that has enabled him to be registered as a cyborg rather than a human being in the British civil registry.
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The electronic eye project that allowed him to "hear" colours was born from the collaboration of Adam Montandon, a computer scientist, Slovenian Peter Kese and Catalan Matias Lizana. We interviewed Harbisson, originally from Northern Ireland but raised in Barcelona, Spain, on the occasion of the Singularity University summit held on 27 and 28 September in Milan. It was an opportunity to explore his environmentalist activist soul.
What was it like to "hear" the green of tree leaves for the first time?
Nature in general is microtonal — there are many shades of green and brown. The frequencies of nature are very close to one another; many waves touch. For me it was surprising to feel that nature vibrates a great deal, precisely because the frequencies are close together. A forest has so many vibrations that they create a rhythm, whereas supermarkets, for example, are different: they have very different notes that don't touch one another. In nature, on the other hand, they are always very close to each other.
In the Amazon, some indigenous peoples have up to 16 ways of saying the word "green" because biodiversity there is so rich that one word is not enough. Are you able to pick up the nuances of colours as well?
There are a great many greens and blues. Whereas yellows and reds are fewer. For example, I hear around thirty reds, oranges and yellows. But the greens and blues I perceive are around 90. The range in greens and blues is broader than in red or orange. That is why we have more variations — in nature there are so many shades. Artificially we create a green that is very pure, sitting right at the centre of the range. But in nature there are many variations.
What is your favourite colour?
My favourite colour is infrared, which is a colour invisible to human beings. I can perceive it through my antenna and it is present in many spaces. I can also hear ultraviolet and perceive its level in certain flowers. Sometimes a flower doesn't look interesting, but it has a high level of ultraviolet and so it immediately becomes very interesting. I like the antenna because it connects me with nature more deeply than my body alone would. That is why one of my favourite colours is infrared — it is a colour our species cannot hear.
Have you gone back to see the trees (and therefore their colours) that you saved in Mataró, by climbing them for days until you obtained a guarantee that they would not be felled? Are they still there?
Yes, they are still there. They were planted in 1882, so they are now over a hundred years old. When I climbed them it was 2001, 16 years ago, and they are still there. The council had said they were diseased and needed to be cut down. In my opinion it was a lie. I protested, but the council wouldn't listen to me, so I climbed one and stayed up there for several days. This drew the attention of the local community, the national television arrived too, and the news started to spread until other people also climbed the trees (there were three in total). In the end the council gave in, stating it would no longer cut them down. It was a very special moment for me. When you are up in a tree, you see life differently — everything becomes different. I could see from above the daily routine of the people: immigrants got up at 5 in the morning to go to work. There were many African people catching the train at dawn. Then it was the turn of the older people going to the supermarket or to church. Then the children going to school, the adults going to work and coming back for the "siesta". They were very simple things, but it was truly interesting.
Have you taken part in other protests in defence of the environment?
Always, since childhood, to protect animals and nature. I have been vegetarian since my parents allowed me to become one — I was 11 years old. When I was 6 or 7, my mother told me that what I was eating was an animal and I felt terrible. I felt it was wrong to eat another animal. I am still vegetarian; I don't eat other species because I respect them. I would never kill another animal.
I have always been interested in nature. And I became a cyborg precisely because my interest is nature, not technology. Technology is merely a tool to connect me with nature more deeply. Now that I have the antenna, I experience nature in a deeper way than before. As a species, we have been changing the planet for thousands of years, redesigning it in order to survive. I believe this is wrong. Instead of redesigning the planet, we should redesign ourselves. For example, we use artificial light because we are unable to see at night. But that is wrong. We shouldn't create artificial light — we should have night vision. If we had night vision, cities would remain dark, and that would be good for the environment and for other species, because at night everything should be dark.
Technology should not change the environment, but the individual. That would be the greatest benefit for the Earth. Another example is air conditioning and heating. In summer we use air conditioning to cool the environment, while in winter we heat it. But that is absurd. We should be able to control our own body temperature. It would be more practical. If we could control our temperature, there would be no need for either air conditioning or heating.
As a final question, let's turn to current affairs. As an adopted Catalan, what do you think of the referendum and the clashes between Madrid and Barcelona over Catalan independence?
There is a major problem: Madrid will not allow Catalonia to vote. People want to vote. That is why on Sunday everyone will go and vote anyway, even though they are closing the schools being used as polling stations and seizing the ballot boxes. I will go out and vote, as everyone will. And if I am able to vote, I will vote yes. Because I believe that in order to stimulate creativity one must be independent. On the contrary, when dependent, one becomes lazy. If Catalonia were to become independent, the creation of a new state will bring a great deal of creativity. And consequently Spain too will become more creative. I believe there is nothing wrong with becoming independent.
To be interdependent, one must first be independent. So Catalonia needs to be independent in order to be interdependent and have relations with Spain and the European Union — we do not want to isolate ourselves because we depend on one another. Let's see what will happen on Sunday. We will be active in the streets to defend the right to vote.
Translated by Camilla Soldati
