Abstract

While prior consumer research considered human sensorial experiences that are psychologically and culturally well defined, this study explores the undefined, unknown, and undertheorized phenomenology of cyborg senses. Due to cyborgian additions or enhancements, such as microchips and magnets implants, some cyborgs can listen to colors, others sense magnetic fields, and others even feel lunar seismic activities. Conjugating Merleau-Ponty’s notion of embodiment with transhumanism and cyborgs literature, this chapter presents the sensorial experience of four prominent cyborgs. For their cyborgian being-in-the-world, they must design new sensorial organs, adapt to their inorganic body parts, acquire new habits, and live at risk of losing such a sensoriality. The contribution of this chapter is, first, to provoking discussions of transhumanism and cyborgs and, second, to expanding research on consumer embodiment.