{"ID":2840961,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.12533","arxiv_id":"2511.12533","title":"Experiencing the More-than-Human Through Human Augmentation","abstract":"The recent more-than-human turn in design calls for attentiveness to nonhuman beings. Yet -- as Thomas Nagel's famous ``What is it like to be a bat?'' thought experiment highlights -- human experience is constrained by our own sensorium and an irreducible gap in phenomenal access to nonhuman \\emph{Umwelten}. Grounded in eco-phenomenology and eco-somatics, this paper proposes \\textbf{Experiencing the More-than-Human through Human Augmentation} (MtHtHA, or ``\u003eHtH+''), a design approach that repurposes human augmentation technologies -- typically aimed at enhancing human capabilities for human optimization -- to create temporary, embodied, first-person experiences that modulate the human sensorium to approximate nonhuman sensory experiences, cultivating ecological awareness, empathy, and care across species boundaries. We articulate seven design principles, report five design cases -- EchoVision (bat-like echolocation), FeltSight (star-nosed-mole tactile navigation), FungiSync (fungal network attunement), TentacUs (octopus-like distributed agency), and City of Sparkles (urban data from an AI's perspective) -- and discuss implications for more-than-human aesthetics and design practice.","short_abstract":"The recent more-than-human turn in design calls for attentiveness to nonhuman beings. Yet -- as Thomas Nagel's famous ``What is it like to be a bat?'' thought experiment highlights -- human experience is constrained by our own sensorium and an irreducible gap in phenomenal access to nonhuman \\emph{Umwelten}. Grounded i...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.12533","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.12533v3","authors":"[\"Botao 'Amber' Hu\",\"Danlin Huang\"]","published":"2025-11-16T10:01:35Z","proceeding":"cs.HC","tasks":"[\"cs.HC\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}