Susanna Hertrich has an interesting reflection on human enhancements as part of her MA thesis at the RCA in London.

The risks we fear the most are often the ones most unlikely to be encountered. The human animal has lost its natural instinct for the real dangers. When worn directly on your skin, the Alertness Enhancing Device will act as a physical prosthesis for a lost natural instinct of the real fears and dangers that threaten us – as opposed to perceived risks that often cause a public outrage.

The idea is it stimulates goosebumps and shivers that go down your spine and make your neck hair stand up, waking up the alert animal inside. You become more alert and ready for the real dangers in life.

Research on risk perception show that many people are seriously afraid of terrorist attacks and their anxiety is heavily exploited in media and politics.  While we consciously know what are the things that really threatens us, we tend to dedicate much more of attention to spectacular disasters with many deaths.  That’s when the Alertness Enhancing Device comes in. If you feel dispassionate and bored when reading news stories about another environmental pollution scandal, it’s probably time to turn the dial of the device on:

At the moment, the device and thesis is a work in progress, and Hertrich is apparently planning to move further in to the field we loving know as Grinding:

For the next version I plan to work with much more sophisticated sensations on the skin than microcurrents. The project now has shifted more into “skin as interface” and I plan to play with “apparent movement” sensations and “somatosensory illusions” as beeing explored in haptic research.

via IEET (Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies)