編者按：人類有聽覺、視覺、觸覺、味覺、嗅覺五種感官。近年來，科學家正在研究把人類的感官維度進一步擴大的可能性，而本文就是對目前相關成果的一個全面介紹。本文編譯自《大西洋月刊》原題為「Beyond the Five Senses」的文章。
The world we experience is not the real world. It』sa mental construction, filtered through our physical senses. Which raises the question: How would our world change if we had new and different senses? Could they expand our universe?
我們所體驗的世界並不是真實的世界。這是一種通過我們身體感官過濾過的精神構建。這也引發了一個問題：如果我們有新的，不同的感覺，我們的世界將被如何改變？它們能擴大我們的宇宙嗎？
Technology has long been used to help people who have lost, or were born without, one of the five primary senses. More recently, researchers in the emerging field of 「sensory enhancement」 have begun developing tools to give people additional senses—ones that imitate those of other animals, or that add capabilities nature never imagined. Here』s how such devices could work, and how they might change what it means to be human.
長期以來，技術一直被用來幫助那些後天失去或先天喪失感官的人們。最近，研究人員又開始在「增強感官」的新興領域躍躍欲試，他們力圖給人類開發出一種額外的感官工具- 模仿其他動物的感官，或增加生命中尚不具備的功能。現在，讓我們就這些設備是怎樣工作的，以及它們將如何改變人類，做一簡要介紹。
1 聽力圖片 Hearing Pictures
For decades, some deaf people have worn cochlear implants, which use electrode arrays to stimulate the auditory nerve inside the ear. Researchers are working on other technologies that could restore sight or touch to those who lack it. For the blind, cameras could trigger electrodes on the retina, on the optic nerve, or in the brain. For the paralyzed or people with prosthetic limbs, pressure pads on real or robotic hands could send touch feedback to the brain or to nerves in the arm.
幾十年來，一些聾人佩戴著，使用電極陣列來刺激耳內聽覺神經的人工耳蝸。研究人員正在研究可以幫助殘疾人士恢復視力或觸覺的技術。對於盲人，攝像機可以觸發在視網膜，視神經或大腦中的電極。對於癱瘓或裝假肢的人，通過真人或機器人手上的壓力墊可以給大腦或手臂的神經發出觸摸回饋。
Autistic people might even gain a stronger social sense. Last year, MIT researchers revealed the EQ-Radio, a device that bounces signals off people to detect their heart rate and breathing patterns. A yet-to-be-invented device might infer a target』s mood from those data and convey it to an autistic user—or anyone who wants to improve their emotional intuition.
自閉症患者甚至能獲得更強的社會意識。去年，據麻省理工學院研究人員透露，EQ-Radio是一種能反映人類心率和呼吸模式的設備。 這是一個尚待發明的設備，它可能會從一些數據中推斷出目標的情緒，並將其傳遞給自閉症用戶，或是任何想要改善直覺情緒的人。
We can also substitute one sense for another. The brain is surprisingly adept at taking advantage of any pertinent information it receives, and can be trained to, for instance, 「hear」 images or 「feel」 sound. For the blind, a device called the BrainPort V100connects a camera on a pair of glasses to a grid of electrodes on a person』s tongue. At first the effect just feels like tiny bubbles, but eventually users can learn to read stronger points of stimulation as bright pixels and weaker points as dark ones, and can form a mental picture.
我們也可以用一種感官來替代另一種感官。通過訓練， 大腦會奇妙地利用其接收的任何相關信息，完成「聽到」圖像或「感覺」聲音的任務。 對於盲人，一種被稱為BrainPort V100的設備將一副眼鏡上的相機連接到人舌頭的電極上。 起初的效果只是感覺像是微小的氣泡，但最終，用戶可以學會把較強的刺激點看作是亮的像素，而弱一點的刺激則被當作是黑暗，以此來形成一個心裡畫面。
Somewhat similarly, a Dutch device called the vOICe (「Oh I see!」) uses a camera to create a soundscape that the vision-impaired wearer hears through headphones. To the uninitiated it sounds like bursts of static, but with training, people can discern images. Every second or so, the sound pans from left to right, using frequency to indicate an object』s height (the taller the object, the higher the pitch) and volume to indicate its brightness.
與此類似，一種被稱為vOICe的荷蘭設備（「哦我看到了」）使用相機創建出一個視障患者能夠通過耳機聽到音響風景的效果。 對於外行的人來說，它聽起來像是打破了靜態，但是通過訓練，人們可以用它來辨別圖像。 每隔一秒左右，聲音從左到右上下移動，使用頻率來指示物體的高度（物體越高，斜度越高)，利用音量以指示其亮度。
For the deaf, David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, has developed a vestthat turns sound into a pattern of vibrations on the torso. With practice, people can learn to use it to interpret speech and other sounds.
對於聾啞人士，斯坦福大學的神經科學家大衛·艾格曼（David Eagleman）開發了一種將聲音變成軀幹振動模式的背心。 通過實踐，人們可以學會用它來分析言語和其他聲音。
2 從大自然中借鑒 Borrowing From Nature
Scientists are also exploring ways to add senses found elsewhere in the animal kingdom. For instance, a handheld device called the Bottlenose, built by amateur biohackers, uses ultrasound to detect the distance of objects, then vibrates the user』s finger at different frequencies, giving him or her echolocation. Other devicesprovide the navigational sense of migratory birds: A company calledfeelSpace sells the naviBelt, a belt that points you in your desired direction by vibrating on your waist. Another company, Cyborg Nest, sells the North Sense, a device you can attach to your chest that vibrates when pointing north.
科學家們也在探索添加一些在動物王國中發現的其他感官。例如，由業餘生物駭客構建的稱為寬瓶的手持設備，它使用超聲波來檢測物體的距離，然後以不同的頻率振動用戶的手指，給其發出回聲定位。其他設備則提供了類似候鳥的導航感官：一家名為feelSpace的公司銷售naviBelt腰帶，通過腰帶的振動來引導你去你想要的方向。另一家稱做Cyborg Nest的公司，銷售一種可以附著在胸部的裝置North Sense，當它指向北方時，該裝置會振動。
In the future, cochlear implants could be tuned to pick up really low frequencies, such asthose used by elephants, or really high ones, such as those used by dolphins. Bionic eyes could be built to allow humans to see ultraviolet rays (as butterflies, reindeer, dogs, and other animals can) and infrared light (as certain snakes, fish, and mosquitoes can).
未來，人工耳蝸植入物可以通過調節來獲得像大象使用的，那些非常低的頻率，或者像海豚使用的，那些非常高的頻率。可以建造仿生眼睛以允許人類看到紫外線（如蝴蝶，馴鹿，狗和其他動物）以及紅外光（如某些蛇，魚和蚊子）。
Some researchers think we may eventually install a port in our brains that would allow us to swap in different sensors when we need them. 「Maybe there』s a Swiss Army Knife of sensors that you carry with you,」 says Rajesh P. N. Rao, the director of the National Science Foundation』s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering. You might rely on a distance sensor when climbing a mountain, then plug in night vision after dark.
一些研究人員認為我們可能最終會在大腦中安裝一個埠，這樣我們可以在需要的時候更換不同的感測器。國家科學基金會感覺神經工程中心主任Rajesh P. N. Rao說：「也許你會攜帶一把瑞士軍刀的感測器。」爬山時，你可能會把它當作距離感測器，然後在黑夜，插入夜視功能。
3 感覺月亮震動 Sensing Moonquakes
We might also gain senses that no other animal has. The vibrating vest Eagleman created can be programmed to receive any input, not just sound. He says it could be used to monitor the stock market, or sentiment on Twitter, or the pitch and yaw of a drone, or one』s own vital signs. You could of course display these things on a computer screen, but our brains can』t attend to lots of visual details at once, Eagleman says. The body, on the other hand, is used to monitoring dozens of muscles just to keep us balanced, so would be more adept at handling multidimensional inputs.
我們也可能感受到其他動物沒有的感覺。 大衛·艾格曼研製的振動背心，可以被設計為能接收任何輸入信號，而不僅僅是聲音。 他說該背心可以被用來監控股票市場，Twitter上的情緒，無人機的俯仰和偏航，或是自己的生命體征。 你當然可以在電腦屏幕上顯示這些東西，但是我們的大腦不能一次就能看到大量的視覺細節，艾格曼說。 另一方面，我們的身體被用於監測幾十塊肌肉，以保持平衡，因此可以說，我們的身體更擅長處理多個方位的信號輸入。
A cortical implant could also theoretically take in just about any type of information, which the brain could process as a new sense. 「You can do whatever you want,」 says Neil Harbisson, a 「cyborg artist」 who』s originally from Spain. 「You can design a unique sense that is related to your interests or to your curiosity.」
理論上，皮質植入物也可以接收任何類型的信息，大腦可以將其作為新的感官來處理。 「你可以做任何你想要的，」Neil Harbisson，一個最初來自西班牙的「電子人」藝術家說。 「你可以設計出一種獨特的感覺，這與你的興趣或是你的好奇心有關。」
Harbisson was born seeing in gray scale. In 2004, he had an antenna surgically attached to his skull. The antenna has a camera at the end and vibrates at different frequencies, turning colors into sound. (He can also use the antenna to take phone calls and listen to music.) He plans to implant a band around his head with a warm spot that orbits every 24 hours, giving him a temporal organ. His friend and collaborator Moon Ribas has a wireless chip in her arm that vibrates when earthquakes occur anywhere in the world, giving her a seismic sense. She hopes to put vibrating implants in her feet that convey moonquakes.
Harbisson天生只能看到灰色圖像。 在2004年，他通過手術將一個天線附著在他的頭骨上。 天線後面有一個攝像頭，並以不同的頻率振動，將顏色變成聲音。 （他也可以使用天線來打電話及聽音樂）。他計劃植入一個裹在頭部的帶子， 帶子上的熱點以24小時的周期轉動，相當於給自己了一個時間感官。 他的朋友與合作夥伴Moon Ribas，在她的手臂上裝有一個無線晶元，當地震發生在世界任何地方時，它都會振動，給她一個震感。 她希望將震動的植入物放植入到她的腳里，來傳遞月光震動。
But Bernd Fritzsch, a neuroscientist at the University of Iowa, cautions that for every patch of neural real estate we dedicate to interpreting a new sense, we leave fewer neurons for processing the others. So with each sense we add, we』re also taking something away.
但愛荷華大學神經科學家伯恩德·弗里奇施（Bernd Fritzsch）警告說，我們每多使用一種神經元素來解釋一種新感覺，就會剩下越來越少的神經元去處理其它的事情。 換言之，我們每增加一種感官的同時，我們也在拿掉一些東西。
4 文學上的群體思維 Literal Groupthink
Perhaps we』ll even achieve that so-called sixth sense: ESP. Kevin Warwick, an engineer at Coventry University, in the U.K., wirelessly connected an electrode in his arm to one in his wife』s arm, so that wherever they were, they could feel when the other flexed a hand. Eagleman wants to take that idea one step further and wirelessly connect heart and sweat monitors on his wife and himself so they can sense each other』s moods.
也許有一天我們會實現所謂的第六感：ESP。英國考文垂大學工程師凱文·沃里克（Kevin Warwick）將他手臂上的一根電極與他妻子手臂中的電極無線連接起來，使得他們無論身在何處，都可以感覺到對方伸出的另一隻手。艾格曼希望把這個想法進一步推進，他通過無線連接方式把他和他妻子的心臟與汗水監示器連接到一起，以便他們能感受到對方的心情。
Research by Rao shows that people can send yes/no messages telepathically: An EEG senses brain activity in the sender and another device applies magnetic pulses to the brain of the receiver. Eventually, we might have brain implants connected wirelessly. 「This kind of communication might get over some of the limitations of language,」 Rao says. It could help people share sensations or express thoughts that are hard to put into words, and enhance collaboration. 「I think that will completely change how we are as humans,」 Warwick says. 「Telepathy is the future.」 Indeed, Elon Musk recently started a company called Neuralinkfocused on connecting brains to computers; he saysit could someday enable computer-mediated telepathy.
Rao的研究表明，人們可以通過心靈感應發送」是或否」的消息：腦電圖可感知發送者的大腦活動，另一個設備則將磁脈衝發送到接收者的大腦。最終，我們可能會將人腦植入物通過無線的方式連接起來。 「這種溝通可能會克服一些語言上的局限性，」Rao說。它可以幫助人們分享感覺或表達難以通過語言來描述的想法，並加強人們之間的協作。 「我認為這將徹底改變人類，」沃里克說。 「感應是未來」。事實上，Elon Musk最近剛剛創立了一家名叫Neuralink的公司，專門從事將大腦與電腦連接起來的工作;他說有一天電腦介入的心靈感應可以實現。
Exactly how all this tinkering will change us remains to be seen. Harbisson says that gaining animals』 senses 「would allow us to connect with nature and to other species in a more profound way.」 But if shared senses connect us to other species, might sensation inequality pull people apart by creating new categories of haves and have-nots? We already struggle to agree on what』s real and what』s fake; that problem seems likely to get worse as technology creates new means of perception. 「Society is stretched like an elastic band,」 Warwick says. Radical sensory enhancement for some could stretch it even more. 「The question is, does the elastic band break?」
這些研究將如何改變我們，還有待觀察。哈比森說，獲得動物的感官「將使我們能夠以更深刻的方式與大自然及其他物種聯繫起來。」但是，這種將我們與其他物種連接起來的共享感覺，可能會加重人類的不平等，因為有些人擁有一些能力而另一些沒有。我們已經很難判斷什麼是真實的，什麼是虛幻的；當技術創造出新的感官時，這個問題可能會變得更糟。 「社會被拉伸得像條彈力帶，」沃里克說。對某些人來說，一些激進的感官可能會被拉伸的更多。 「問題是，彈性帶是否會有一天斷裂呢？
重點辭彙
sensory enhancement：感官增強
cochlear implants：人工耳蝸
retina：視網膜
ultrasound：超聲波
cortical implant：皮質植入物
ESP：第六感（extrasensory perception）
telepathy：心靈感應
編輯：郝鵬程
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