YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED
More than 20 years ago, a young teenager from Boca Raton, Florida, became the first person in the United States to receive an implanted microchip made by Applied Digital Solutions, a radio identification (RFID) chip like those long used in pets. The “VeriChip” contained a tiny radio transmitter and bits of code with Derek Jacobs’ identity and medical conditions. Derek and his parents, Jeffrey and Leslie, reportedly all received such chips, delivered via wide-bore hypodermics.
The blending of biology and technology has been a subject of fascination going all the way back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and perhaps best exploited in Star Trek: The Next Generation, where recurring episodes involved confrontations with the Borg, a predatory cybernetic hive whose imperative to other life forms was chilling: “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.”
Resistance is not even an issue in Susanna Cappallero’s compelling documentary My Husband the Cyborg, where we meet her spouse Scott Cohen in a tattoo-and-piercing parlor as he gets some titanium barbs installed near his sternum. The barbs are mounting pins for a small circuit board called “North Sense” that sends a buzz through his body when he faces north. To get the sensation, he must twist awkwardly like an autistic to find the right position. Once he does this, his anxiety abates.
Why he’s obsessed about true north is never explained, but later he mentions that the North Sense device is only preliminary work on cybernetic implants that will enable humans to know and recognize wherever they are on earth, even for the first time—no more need for a GPS-enabled smartphone. That capability will be built into people willing to accept the implants.
Cohen has a zealot’s faith in the importance of such work, describing Borg-like assimilation as inevitability. We also meet British cybernetics pioneer Kevin Warwick, who demonstrates a much refined version of the North Sense, a high-powered tiny cylinder that can be imbedded subcutaneously, without the ugly bulk visible under Cohen’s shirts. The weight of the prototype North Sense pulls constantly on its mounting pins, irritating Cohen’s skin, and causing infections that require repositioning the barbs. The discomfort makes it difficult for him to move normally, and makes normal expressions of tenderness between him and Susanna impossible. She complains repeatedly that they can’t hug.
Quoting from deep thinkers such as Ray Kurzweill and Stephen Hawking, Susanna lets curiosity overwhelm her doubts. She goes to an “implant party” at a hotel in Stockholm, where enthusiasts have all sorts of devices under their skin, including ID chips that let them open electronically-operated doors, and small magnets in their fingertips to aid in picking up metal objects such as paper clips. Her doubts persist even as she relishes having taken the first step toward assimilation. Her husband goes on at length about the potential to prolong individual human awareness, memory, and emotions beyond the limits of typical lifespan—another classic sci-fi trope. Fully conscious brain in a jar, anyone?
One ominous possibility is that ultimately, RFID implants and mind-control devices could become legal requirements for all newborns. They would serve multiple purposes, as drivers’ licenses and credit cards do today, and could be of enormous value to totalitarian governments. Refusal to accept the chip—or attempting to remove one—could be interpreted by law enforcement as proof of criminal intent. That sort of musing is beyond the scope of Cappallero’s film, but it should be on the minds of everyone who sees it.
Well-made and moderately paced, My Husband the Cyborg —edited by Maya Maffioli and Susanna Scarpa from mostly iPhone shots—provides plenty of food for thought without taking a definite stand against or in favor of cybernetics. There is no question that human life has been improved by all kinds of implantable devices, from pacemakers and heart valves to artificial joints. Whether we want to take the next step and accept potentially behavior-controlling technology is a serious question, implied but not answered in this 90-minute film.
