Final Essay Ideas

Body hacking is one of the topics that has caught my eye the most in this class. It's something very new that borders both medical and DIY researchers who want to expand the abilities of the human body.
The paper will explore how body hacking is used to modify the body focusing on either the disabled and helping them with their lost senses or abilities or normal people adding extra senses and improving abilities How the medical field of hacking is focuses on the first and the DIY researchers tend to focus on the latter.
As medical research and technology is becoming more advanced, more and more of it is being used by bodyhackers, people who enhance and change their bodies instead of curing diseases.Traditional medicine changes our bodies in what we see now as normal:vaccines, plastic surgery, and even prosthetic. As we continue to advance should we stop and ask. What should be legal? Are patients turning into consumers and how far can and should people go with body hacking, is there a limit?

Technology, mass media, and governments all play a roll in this. Just how far can you take this technology where are these people who partake in the research aiming for? Is there an overall goal within the community. 

BodyHacking

With the advent of the smartphone, many Americans have grown used to the idea of having a computer on their person at all times. Wearable technologies like Google’s Project Glass are narrowing the boundary between us and our devices even further by attaching a computer to a person’s face and integrating the software directly into a user’s field of vision. The shift is reflected even in the names of our dominant operating systems. Names like Microsoft are replaced by a union of man and machine: the iPhone or Android. Homebrew biohackers are obsessed with the idea of human enhancement. They are looking for new ways to put machines into their bodies. They are joined by hundreds of aspiring biohackers who populate the movement’s online forums and a growing number, now several dozen, who have gotten the magnetic implants in real life. People are getting magnetic implants in their fingers. Putting these rare earth metals into the body was pioneered by artists on the bleeding edge of piercing culture and transhumanists interested in experimenting with a sixth sense. Steve Haworth who specializing in the bleeding edge of body modification, and considers himself a “human evolution artist” is considered one of the originators, and helped to teach a generation of practitioners how to perform magnetic implants, including the owner of Hot Rod Piercing in Pittsburgh.  By using surgical tools like scalpels, which is a grey area for piercers. Operating with these instruments, or any kind of anesthesia, could be classified as practicing medicine. Without a medical license, On its own, the implant allows a person to feel electromagnetic fields: a microwave oven in their kitchen, a subway passing beneath the ground, or high tension power lines overhead. While this added perception is interesting, it has little utility. But the magnet is more of a stepping-stone than anything else. “It can be done cheaply, with minimally invasive surgery. You get used to the idea of having something alien in your body, and kinda begin to see how much more the human body could do with a little help. Sure, feeling other magnets around you is fucking cool, but the real key is, you’re giving the human body a simple, digital input.” These types of modification are all aiming towards improvement, but how far will people go to improve themselves with technology. Is there a limit? I don’t think there will be at least anytime soon, I’m not hoping for anything like the matrix but something similar is probably going to be a reality within the new few decades. Imagine being able to download instructions about anything instantaneously through a small chip in your brain.  The thought is pretty exciting I can’t wait to see how these types of technologies are going to develop and improve our ways of learning and interacting about the world.

Aimee Mullins

Aimee Mullins is a double leg amputee.  She lost both her legs in childhood to a genetic disease.  As an adult she is a recognized athlete, model, actress and activist. She graduated from Georgetown University with a double major in history and diplomacy and is a tireless advocate for the disabled. She has been named one of the fifty most beautiful people in the world by People Magazine. This woman has accomplished more than I ever will, and has done it with a grace and dignity I can only hope to aspire to. In a Tedtalk labeled “Aimee Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs” She discusses how people with disabilities can not only have their missing legs or arms modified but improved far beyond normal human capabilities. She augments her body (legs) by changing into different pair of legs almost as if they’re shoes. Having everything from cheetah legs, legs with potatoes growing in them and tentacle legs. She uses an example of how one of her friends said how it’s not fair that she can change her height and abilities how she pleases. The way of thinking about people with disabilities having prosthetics isn’t about over coming deficiency and replacing what was once lost.  The way of thinking has changed to what they can put in the place, it turns lost into a incredible potential. People who were once disabled can now design their bodies and empower themselves with technology. These modifications can either be very functional such as Mullins’ pair of running legs which mimic a runner’s foot causing her to sprint much faster than normal people could to the pair of tentacle legs which serve no other reason than to be aesthetic. Aimee Mullins has not only faced her disability, she has embraced it; with courage, humility and even humor. During the Tedtalk she says "Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do.  Nobody calls her disabled." Having this ability to change legs has empowered her and I would imagine other people as well to live greater and fuller lives. These types of modifications to someone who has no legs or arms makes one wonder weather if they really should be considered “disabled”, although I know not everyone can afford such modifications people like Aimee Mullins pave the path for people. Maybe one-day amputees will have prosthetic arms and legs that will far exceed normal human abilities putting them in a cyborg category being mostly human but having so many extra abilities to choose from makes you wonder who’s really going to be the one who’s limited. This woman has a voice, which should be heard.  I encourage you to listen to her interviews and seminars.