Stelarc had a “third hand” produced for hi by a group of Japanese robotic engineers, which matched the size of his own right hand. It was activated directly by the electrical signals of his abdomen and leg muscles and was able to rotate from the wrist as well as to grab and release. It took several months for Stelarc to teach himself the control he needed to be able tho write a word using all three hands at once.
“Simply the body has created an information and technological environment which it can no longer cope with. This…impulse to accumulate more and more information has created a situation where human cortical capacity just can’t absorb and creatively process all this information… It was necessary to create technology to take over what the body can no longer do. It’s created a technology that far surpasses certain capabilities of itself… the only evolutionary strategy I see is… to incorporate technology into the body… technology symbiotically attached and implanted into the body creates a new evolutionary synthesis, creates a new human hybrid – the organic and synthetic coming together to create a new sort of evolutionary energy”
