JIZAI Body: Human-Machine Integration Based on Asian Thought

“JIZAI Body”² allows each person to live as they wish by controlling their natural body and altered robotic body parts. The Japanese term “jizai” originates from the Sanskrit word “isvara,” which means supreme being free from earthly desires and constrains. JIZAI Body emphasizes the transformability of physical bodies and the effects on spiritual and internal minds fostered in Asian spiritualities such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and others, beyond enhancement or augmentation contextualized in Western cultures.

For example, a wearable robotic limb system called JIZAI ARMS⁴ (see Figure 1) allows social interaction between multiple wearers and explores communication between them. Wearers can exchange the arms and share the body parts. A robotic sixth finger (Figure 2) enables humans to embody a robotic finger independently from the innate fingers.³ It has also been shown that humans can embody supernumerary robotic arms and feel them as their own limbs in a virtual reality environment.⁴

Figure 1. JIZAI ARMS.

Figure 2. Sixth finger.

The uniqueness of JIZAI Body research lies in its investigation of what society will be like when people who acquire JIZAI bodies interact, and in its scientific elucidation of JIZAI states. It raises the question of how people’s body image will change in the JIZAI society. Both the realization of JIZAI bodies based on Asian thought, and the scientific clarification of JIZAI states, is required.