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.