Abstract
This paper proposes a novel field of technology, “Ghost Engineering”, for enabling us to change our cognitive functions as we hope by modifying our body perception and recognition. Recent embodied cognition studies revealed that our mind can be influenced by the states and recognition of our bodies. Meanwhile, recent development in virtual reality and augmented human technologies enable us to flexibly modify/extend our body itself and recognition of our bodily states. Considering these together, our mind would be designed by utilizing these novel techniques which provide augmented body. In this paper, function of human mind is called as “Ghost” after the concept of “Ghost in the machine” by G. Ryle, and recent achievement, possibilities, tentative limitations, and future implication of Ghost Engineering technologies are introduced based on three categories: Body transformation for modifying our emotion, creativity and empathy; Body multiplexing/unification for enhancing our social abilities; and Body motion modification for enhancing our physical performance via mental support.
