More than Human: Six Body Hacks that Give You Superpowers, Kinda
In today’s modern world we often hear about hacking computers, hacking smartphones, hacking email. But how about hacking your body? I’m not talking full-on Neo from The Matrix here — no plugging a USB cable into the back of your head to become a kung-fu master — but some of the “upgrades” people are making to their bodies may seem like they came straight out of a sci-fi movie. People that modify or upgrade their bodies in this way are known as “biohackers” or “grinders.”
What is biohacking?
Biohacking has been around for a while and can be considered a form of self-improvement. It’s the practice of changing your body’s chemistry and physiology through science and self-experimentation. However, the term incorporates a wide range of areas and methods. Biohacking can range from something as simple as using nutrition and lifestyle changes to improve how your body functions, to DIY gene therapy, to altering your own body by implanting cybernetic devices. It’s the latter subsection that we’ll focus on here. People that modify their bodies in this way are called grinders and, according to the grinder website Biohack.me, they “practice functional (sometimes extreme) body modification in an effort to improve the human condition.”
As technology and our scientific knowledge expands, so does the possibilities of biohacking. From practical, useful, and life-improving enhancements to the human body to the very impractical, purely cosmetic, and downright odd additions, let’s take a look at some interesting biohacks.
Blood test implant
Researchers in Switzerland are developing a tiny blood-testing implant. The device contains various sensors, a radio transmitter, and a power system. The sensors are coated with different enzymes that allow the implant to monitor various substances in the blood. The device can be recharged through the skin via an external battery. Test results from the implant are transmitted over the cellular network to the medical practitioner.
Devices like this could drastically change the way some medical conditions are monitored, such as diabetes. Most blood glucose tests are done by pricking a finger and extracting a drop of blood to be tested using a glucose monitor. Having one of these implants would allow diabetics to have a constant read out of their blood glucose level by simply looking at their smartphone or smart watch.
Eyeborg
One-eyed filmmaker Rob Spence wanted to create true point-of-view content so he teamed up with an ocularist and a team of engineers to create a prosthetic eye with a video camera. Spence’s eye contains a miniature camera and RF transmitter and allows him to stream his point of view to a computer. The eye can be used for around 30 minutes before the battery needs to be recharged.
Circadia, North Sense
Tim Cannon is a software developer and well-known biohacker who is often referred to as a cyborg due to the various modification implants he has had. In 2013, Cannon became the first person to be implanted with a biometric sensor known as Circadia, which was designed and built by his company, Grindhouse Wetware. The device was roughly the size of a pack of playing cards and was inserted into his forearm where it stayed for several months. The bulky implant had the ability to monitor Cannon’s body temperature and send the data to a smartphone, it was also capable of induction charging through his skin and could light up using LEDs. That was pretty much it for Circadia 1.0 but Cannon hopes that future updates and improvements would allow the body temperature to be automatically sent to smart home devices in order to regulate room temperature accordingly.
Cannon is working on a new version of the Circadia device that can measure blood glucose, blood oxygen, blood pressure, and heart rate, among other things.
Cannon also had Grindhouse Wetware’s Northstar V1 device implanted into his forearm in 2015. The device is smaller than the Circadia, roughly the size of a dollar coin, but has even less features. The Northstar contains five LEDs that activate when they come in contact with a magnet (luckily, fingertip magnets are quite popular among grinders…more on this later).
Hearing colors
Another self-titled cyborg, Neil Harbisson, was born without the ability to see color, so in 2004 he decided to have a permanent antenna implanted into the back of his skull to enable him to literally hear colors. The bendable antenna extends over Harbisson’s head and stops in front of his forehead. At the end is a small camera that picks up the dominant color in front of Harbisson and converts the light waves into corresponding soundwaves that the 35-year-old has memorized.
While the device doesn’t allow Harbisson to experience colors in the same way as a non-colorblind person, he is able to tell colors apart now and can even experience colors us non-cyborgs can’t, such as infrared.
Finger magnets
Another popular modification undertaken by grinders is the implanting of small magnets, usually into the fingertips. The implants give people a sixth sense by allowing them to sense magnetic fields, as the magnetic reactions stimulate tactile nerve endings in the fingertips. They also allow for some cool party tricks but could ruin your day if you forget to mention them while having an MRI scan.
NFC and RFID tags
If you’re like me and are always forgetting your access card for work then this one may appeal to you. This is probably one of the more well-known biohacks and involves people having RFID or NFC chips implanted, usually in their hands or wrists. This functional mod can allow you to open doors, log in to computers or smart devices, pay for lunch, or even unlock your car. And because the chips are so small the procedure is very quick and relatively painless.
In 2017, a company announced it would be the first U.S. firm to microchip employees (it was voluntary).
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