Biohacking is a fashionable trend or a technology of the future

A chip implanted into the hand that opens the door and shows the body temperature. It seems that this is fantastic. However, electronic implants have already become a reality, and a new movement of biohackers is building ambitious plans on them. In this article, we will tell you which implants already exist, in which areas they are used and whether their implantation is safe.

Why are microchips implanted?

Tim Shank is confident that he will never forget the keys to the front door. Why? Because they are inside his body.

Tim Shank, president of the futuristic community in Minneapolis, planted a chip in his hand that unlocks the electronic lock on the front door. His wife has the same key.

When you leave the house, you mentally check a few things, such as your wallet or keys. When there is no need to check something from this list, you feel the mental space freed up.

Tim Shank

Shank has several chips in his hands, including an NFC sensor, like those used for contactless payments. Tim's sensor stores a virtual business card with TwinCities + contacts.

“If a person has an Android smartphone, I can just touch his device with my hand, namely the place where the chip is implanted, and it will send information to the phone,” Tim says. In the past, he also had a chip with his e-wallet data.

Shank is one of many biohackers who implant various electronic devices into the body, from microchips to magnets.

Some biohackers implant chips in themselves as an experimental art project, others have health problems, so they use implants to improve their quality of life.

Another reason for chip implantation is to empower human perception. For example, Shank experimented with a portable remote sensor that vibrated a magnet implanted in his arm. The mechanism of operation is similar to that of a sonar. With the help of such a chip, you can understand how far away obstacles are from it. In addition, Tim is considering installing a chip that will track his body temperature.

But not all biohackers are so ambitious. For some, an implanted chip is just a convenient way to store data or open a door.

Is it dangerous to health

It is still unknown what kind of health risk implants pose in the long term. But many biohackers believe that if everything is done correctly, the implanted chip is no more threatening to health than a piercing or.

Often, microchip implantation operations take place in piercing parlors, because the masters have all the necessary skills and equipment for safe and almost painless body modification.

“When you talk about implanting something into your body, it's actually even safer than piercing,” says Amal Graafstra, founder of a biohacking company.

Amal Graafstra implanted his first chip in the arm in 2005. It was a keyless door opening device. Over the years, more microchip manufacturers and biohackers have emerged looking to insert implants. Then Graafstra created the company Dangerous Things, the main goal of which was to ensure the safety of procedures for implanting microcircuits.

“I thought maybe it’s time to turn this into a business and keep people safe when the chips are implanted,” he says.

His company works with a network of piercers and produces online tutorials and videos for masters who want to join the biohacker movement.

The future of electronic implants

Now electronic implants allow you to confirm the identity of the wearer and open doors. According to Graafstra, the next generation of chips will have enough cryptographic power to work safely with banking terminals.

The technology already exists. We can communicate with payment terminals, but we do not have permission from banks and companies like MasterCard to actually work with them.

Amal Graafstra

Paying for goods with an implanted chip may seem strange to ordinary consumers and risky to banks, but Graafstra believes it will become ubiquitous someday.

He cites research by Chris Griffith as an example. … conducted by Visa in 2015. It turned out that 25% of Australians are at least interested in the ability to pay for goods with a chip implanted in the body.

“People think about it,” says Graafstra. "You just need to see it through to the end."

Biohacking for beauty

Another implantation technology focuses more on the aesthetic component. The Pittsburgh-based biohacking company offers star-shaped LED implantation, a decoration called the Northstar.

The creators were inspired by the lights of a device called Circadia. This device was implanted in 2013 by the founder of Grindhouse Wetware Tim Cannon. The biometric sensor automatically sent Cannon's body temperature readings to his smartphone and at the same time glowed due to several LEDs. Unlike Circadia, Pole Star has no useful features. The device is designed exclusively for beauty and resembles natural luminescence.

"This particular device has only an aesthetic function," said Ryan O'Shea, spokesman for Grindhouse. "It can highlight tattoos, be used in interpretive dance with gestures and facial expressions, or in other forms of art."

The light is turned on by means of magnets implanted in the fingertips. By the way, this is another common implant. Biohackers believe that small magnets can sense the electromagnetic field and identify electrical problems such as faulty wiring.

Also, the magnets in your fingertips attract small metal objects, such as paper clips or bottle caps. With such implants, you can easily feel like a mutant Magneto from the Marvel universe. Fortunately, they are not strong enough to trick metal detectors, wipe out hard drives, or interfere with an MRI.

“Most Pole Star implant clients also implant magnets,” says Zack Watson, a piercer who inserts the implants. - Installing magnets is like a small step towards the biohacker community. This is done in order to change your body and feel the magnetic field."

According to O'Shea, the second generation of the Polar Star will include a Bluetooth transmitter and gesture recognition sensors, which will allow you to control your smartphone and use the Internet. But that's not the only reason people with implants will upgrade their devices. The battery of a microchip, like any other electronic device, runs out over time.

“When the pacemaker turns off, they do the surgery to replace it,” says O'Shea. - The same should be done with the Polar Star. Fortunately for users, an experienced piercer can replace a device in just 15 minutes.”

A small incision is made in the arm, the skin is lifted, a device is inserted, and then the skin is stitched on top. "If the device was implanted correctly, there is very little scar left," says Watson.

He himself implanted a magnet in his hand, with the help of which he shows small household tricks and lifts the needles while working. But that's not his only implant - an RFID chip in his hand allows him to unlock his phone and automatically upload photos to Instagram.

“My phone has a reader and you can use it to scan my hand,” Watson says. "It's a cool way to showcase your work."

Biohacking for medical purposes

Grindhouse is working on an improved version of the Circadia, a device that displays body temperature. Cannon says Circadia will track other vital signs in the future, such as blood oxygen, heart rate and blood sugar.

He admits that this can create some difficulties for the company. With these features, Circadia will be closer to medical devices, and they are monitored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Grindhouse is not the first company to offer blood sugar monitoring with implantable devices. For example, there is an artificial pancreas system () that allows diabetics to create an automated tool to manage blood sugar levels. The system includes a single-board Raspberry Pi microcomputer connected to an insulin pump and a glucose monitor.

Another example of the use of biohacking to solve health problems is the story of the color blind artist Neil Harbisson. It uses an implanted antenna that translates colors into sound equivalent.

O'Shea says Grindhouse is generally not opposed to control. The company is already conducting extensive research to ensure that their products are safe and do not break in the body, even after physical injury. Grindhouse welcomes regulatory measures to help keep people from implanting toxic and hazardous electronic devices.

What the company doesn’t want to do is establish full-fledged regulatory measures applied to medical devices in relation to implantable chips like Circadia. Strict regulations will keep startups and biohackers from thriving and make the devices incredibly expensive and inaccessible to most potential users.

“The problem with regulation by the FDA is not only that it will take a lot of money and time from companies that are not ready for it, but also in creating certain restrictions for users,” says O'Shea. “We want implants to be available to more people at a low cost, so that there are no people who cannot use these technologies.”

But while the implants have not come under the influence of regulatory authorities, hackers are looking for various ways to use these devices.

Biohacking in art

One of the biohackers who use implants in their work is the artist, dancer and self-proclaimed cyborg Moon Ribas. An internet-connected implant in her hand informs Moon of active earthquakes, and she uses this information for hers. If there are no earthquakes, she does not dance.

She hopes to implant additional, more accurate implants that provide communication with the continent on which the earthquake is taking place, and maybe even report earthquakes on the moon.

“It will allow me to be here and at the same time be in space,” says Moon.

Ribas is also working on a commercial implant that will vibrate when its owner faces north. In the long term, this will help develop a sense of direction in humans, which is characteristic of some animals.

Compared to Tim Shank's implant that simply unlocks the door, these are pretty ambitious plans. “I love everything that has to do with nature, space or animals,” says Moon. - Everyone has their own interests. The ability to simply open a door with an implant doesn't interest me that much."

So, biohacking is gradually penetrating into different spheres of activity, but it is impossible to say with certainty whether implants will take a firm place in our life or will be forgotten as another fashion trend.