The Art Assignment: Become a Sci-Fi Character
In preparation for The Art Assignment: Become a Sci-Fi Character, I took a quiz to find out what type of psychic powers I have, and I was a little surprised by the result: empathy. Since when is empathy a form of ESP?
Turns out the quiz defined empathy as both intuiting and controlling people’s emotions, but I decided to stick with a more traditional definition of empathy and create something that would enhance a person’s sense of empathy by allowing them to feel the emotions of another person (though they won’t necessarily know the reason for those emotions – there is no mind-reading involved).
I don’t consider empathy a purely extrasensory “power.” Our ability to recognize emotions in others comes from our senses (seeing body language, hearing tone of voice, etc.). Our ability to understand what those emotions feel like comes from our own experiences and the knowledge we have of the experiences of others – whether that’s through writing, speech, music, or any other form of communication that gives us a glimpse into another person’s mind.
Because empathy uses the senses as well as mental abilities, I chose to include components that allow for input through sight, sound, and touch (glasses, headphones, and gloves). Because emotion is something that is often felt physically, the empathy machine manufactures physical sensations as well as mental states (e.g., if the wearer is empathizing with someone who is nervous or afraid, they might start to feel nauseous or shaky, or their heart may start to beat faster).
The wearer uses the arrow keys on their wrist to identify a person they want to empathize with, then presses the “enter” key to experience their emotions. The “esc” key is to stop feeling the other person’s emotions, and presumably the experience will sometimes be uncomfortable or painful enough that “escape” really is the right word.
Quick aside: I realize that an empathy machine is not new to science fiction. There is an “empathy box” in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? that allows people to fuse with a man named Mercer and experience everything he feels. While the experience is often painful, characters in the book use it to connect with other people and feel less alone.
While increasing empathy is something that would have societal benefits, I expect many people would choose to wear something like this to connect to other people – much like we use technology today.
Of course, if something like this were ever actually invented, there would be massive privacy issues, and it would have to be controlled in some to way. Despite the good intentions behind it, if it were used simply to stave off loneliness or as a kind of voyeurism, it could be detrimental to both the wearer and the people they connect with.
I’m also fairly certain that it would not look anything like this. Maybe it would be a contact lens, or a tiny earpiece, or a type of medication. Though who knows – maybe clunky wearable technology will become fashionable.
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