Transhuman Communication: Human Augmentation Technologies through Co-Speculation Workshops

DOI

The advancement of human-computer integration as a research field promises to introduce transhumanistic ways of communicating through the enhanced abilities of augmented humans. Our work seeks to illuminate the experiential landscape, exploring a diverse set of human augmentation technologies (HATs) for communicative purposes. We investigated this topic through four co-speculation workshops focusing on physical, cognitive, sensory and emotional augmentations with 35 participants. Through the analysis of the workshop data, we outlined speculations for 8 human augmentation technologies (HATs) for transhuman communication, grouped into four overarching augmentation clusters: (1) Bodily Changes in/for Communication, (2) Communication with Transferrable and Collective Beings, (3) Communication Through Emotion and Memory, and (4) Communication with Augmented/Altered Perception. These speculations serve as a foundation for discussions on transhumanism and communication in CSCW and beyond. Our work contributes a design space highlighting design opportunities and challenges for developing and researching near-future communication technologies.