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rfmcdonaldMy initial response to self-proclaimed Canadian cyborg Steve Mann's report that he was assaulted in a Paris McDonald's for his various cybernetic augmentations, including a physically embedded virtual camera, was incredulity.
On lengthier consideration, I wonder if this incident might be taken as the first incident in the development of prejudice towards people with electronic or mechanical augmentation--hostility towards people with wheelchairs, or seeing eye dogs, comes to mind as a close parallel. I'm inclined to bet that, as the world's population ages and the technology advances, incidents of this kind might become more common.
On lengthier consideration, I wonder if this incident might be taken as the first incident in the development of prejudice towards people with electronic or mechanical augmentation--hostility towards people with wheelchairs, or seeing eye dogs, comes to mind as a close parallel. I'm inclined to bet that, as the world's population ages and the technology advances, incidents of this kind might become more common.
A Toronto computer engineering professor known for augmenting his body with various cyborg-like computing devices has been attracting media attention after he reported on his blog that staff at a McDonald's restaurant in Paris tried to pull his digital glasses off his head.
Steve Mann wrote on his blog that while he and his family were eating at the restaurant last month during their summer vacation, an employee approached him to inquire about the glasses.
The employee was initially satisfied with the doctor's note Mann showed him explaining why he wears the technology (Mann does not specify what the explanation is), but three other employees who approached him later did not accept the letter and one tried to remove the glasses from his head.
"He angrily grabbed my eyeglass and tried to pull it off my head," Mann wrote on his blog when describing the actions of one employee. "The eyeglass is permanently attached and does not come off my skull without special tools."
Mann does not elaborate on why the restaurant staff wanted him to remove the glasses, but he does point to a similar incident reported by CBS News in 2011 in which a travel agent from Boise, Idaho, became involved in a confrontation with an employee at a Paris McDonald's after she tried to take a photo of the restaurant menu.
