Towards a Philosophy of Human Technology: Outlook on cognitive enhancements in Avatar/ Virtual Reality schizophrenia therapy

Abstract

This article hinges on a complex and interdisciplinary field of study named “Philosophy of Human Technology” in which a first non-exhaustive map of ethical, legal and social, technological issues is presented: Technologies constitute, magnify, amplify human experiences, but can also enslave or put human experience and life at risk for example what concerns the right to a “private Life”. The second part of this paper proposes to think three possible interfaces of the topic of Human Cognitive Enhancement. Firstly the Body-electronic interface such as in the organ-on a chip simulation of an externalized human organ function, secondly the optogenetic and general genetic “editing” interface in which new technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 open up questions for the future of human beings and our self-determination. Third -and more explicitly- the virtual-immersive interface, exemplified by cognitive enhancement by Avatar schizophrenia therapy and uncanny valley effects of digital body doubles will be introduced. The classic rubber-hand illusion had brought new insights into the plasticity of the body- image and the embodiment of the self, by underlining the strong influence of exteroception for the transformation of the bodily self. We will follow these thoughts on Avatar enhancements in schizophrenia therapy and scrutinize as well research ethical issues. Finally a short outlook on the question of two different types of technological detachment in tension in a Philosophy of Human Technology in which Cognitive Enhancement technologies are subjected to two types of technological detachments a) material/somatic substitution and b) detachment as a topos of independence and autonomy is hinted on.

Hacking into Cybertherapy: Considering a Gesture-enhanced Therapy with Avatars (g+TA)

“…the patient´s somatic body image and body-ownership given in its necessary multisensory synchronizations and de-synchronizations (Banakou & Slater 2014) and sensory motor embodiment (cf. Gerner & Guerra 2014;Gerner 2015)? Could motor efference copies in which "Motor actions are preceded by an efference copy of the motor command, resulting in a corollary discharge of the expected sensation in sensory cortex" (Ford et al 2014: 804) be a reason for voice hearing?…”

“…Until now the idea of giving an hallucination a face-with face and head modeling computer assistance tools-and by this means enter in a semiotic interaction with the perpetrating voice has not heeded strongly enough the therapeutic potential that the face-to-face interaction as the foundation of social relation (Gerner 2019) might entail, besides the important distinction between the semiotic machine of faciality, the head and its movement and the different notions of embodiment of faciality and head inside a body. While in the classical Avatar Therapy situation, the therapist controls the commonly created Face/Head avatar and guides the patient through a series of psychotherapy sessions allowing the patient after several sessions to take more and more control of his symptoms in order to better his experience and existential feelings of being and diminish the frequency of the voice-like hallucinations or commands, this method seems to interfere with the limits of self-identification and self-representation in relation to the now externalized technical Avatar-object.…”

“…Integrative psychosomatic and technological approaches convey the idea of enhancement in concepts of health (Lenk 2011) that include quantifiable medical treatment and subjective qualitative wellbeing. One of these recent developments is what can be called "Avatar Enhance-ments 1 " in which we include the development of AVATAR therapy (Leff et al 2014, Craig et al 2015, Craig et al 2017Craig et al 2018;Sert et al 2018;Dellazizzo et al 2018;Craig 2019) to help patients with schizophrenia better manage for example their voice-like 2 "AV" hallucinations (AVH 3 ) and gain more self-control over their body (Gerner 2016) besides principle uncanny valley effects not to be overcome (Gerner 2020(Gerner : 2190 related to the double notion of embodiment and disembodiment. Importantly, patients with Command and voice-like hallucinations 4 show gen-1…”