IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 78

Her problem with enhancement
technologies, including CIs, is that
they contribute to the idea that in contemporary society everyone should
be perfect, including having a "normal" body. However, despite these
objections, she still chose to have
a CI and become more "normal"
because of the usefulness of having
a CI. Evy recognizes her contradictions, and struggles with her position.
Most CI implantees in our study
are critical about technologies that
go beyond "repairing" bodies and
try to enhance the human body
above its normal functioning. For
a few others, it depends on the
context in which the enhancement
technology is used: a neurosurgeon,
for instance, may benefit from a
bionic eye. In general, however, CI
users were reserved about the idea
of enhancing the body. This was
contrary to the rFID respondents,
for whom enhancing the body was
part of what the rFID tag enabled.

An Enhanced Self
While some rFID users got their
implants for convenience reasons,
it would be too simple to assume

I have always been interested
in things like transhumanism, cyborgs, augmentation,
and integration of computers
and humans so when I heard
people were doing implants
that let them communicate
directly with the computers it
seemed natural that I would
do it too. (Gale, rFID)
For some implantees who
saw themselves as upgraded, the
implant was not only part of their
body and thus part of their self;
respondents articulated love for the
tag beyond its functionality. Steven
expressed this affection when he
talked about the moment he took
out his implant.
When I first took it [the
implant] out, I missed it
immensely actually, I missed
having it... even in and of
itself. If that makes any- even
outside of its functionality, I
still felt that I was taking a
part of myself away. Uh that
I was somehow... less able,
afterwards. (Steven, rFID)

Some implantees do not
consider themselves cyborgs,
while others see themselves as
extremely basic cyborgs.
this is the only reason. Some
respondents, for instance, thought
the precise functionalities of the
tag were less important than having
the tag. For them, the rFID tag first
and foremost represents an upgrade
of the self. Some respondents do
not even mention the uses of the
tag when explaining their motivation. Instead they focus on the novelty of rFID implants, or explain
that they want to merge with technology. By getting an implant, one
upgrades one's body and thereby
gains a (hidden) skill that others do
not have.
78

Moreover, within this repertoire
of the enhanced self, using the tag
remained exciting beyond the novelty of its first uses. The respondents believed that the implant
gave them a sense of uniqueness.
These respondents have a strong
sense of individual ownership and
responsibility over their bodies:
they can thus customize it to their
wishes. Some respondents show
interest in transhumanism, but
even implantees who did not mention this specific term talk about
how they see their body as something that can be modified.

A mindset of "Hey, I can play
with and hack my body, just
like anything else!" and suddenly it [the body, SW] doesn't
quite seem so sacred and
impermeable. (John, rFID)
Besides the rFID implant that
they already have, respondents
talk about possible future implants
they would like to have. All respondents with a rFID tag are favorable
towards human enhancements, but
those who perceive themselves as
being upgraded talk about integrating these enhancements in their
own bodies.
In fact, these respondents are
looking forward to these new developments, and say, for instance, that
they would like to be a cyborg in the
future. "Cyborg" is short for cybernetic organism, which means that
cybernetic parts and organic parts
interact with each other. A rFID
implant is not interacting with but
hosted in the body; some implantees do not consider themselves
cyborgs, while others see themselves as extremely basic cyborgs.
They do not usually consider themselves to be full cyborgs. respondents did, however, express interest
in the possibility of technology and
the body integrating further. The
tag was a small step towards this.
To get a fuller understanding of the
the "enhanced self," we look at the
story of Jeff in some more detail.

Jeff: Expanding the Horizon
of Human Capability
Jeff is a 31-year-old atheist living
in the rural south of the united
States. With many religious people
in his surroundings, Jeff is the odd
one out. Before implanting the tag
in 2009/2010, Jeff researched and
tested how rFID tags work. When
he first got the implant, Jeff was
mostly experimenting with writing
codes on his computer and testing
whether the implant would react
to it. According to him, the rFID
implant fits with his identity and
his geeky lifestyle:

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