I find the concept of modifying one's self fascinating. The idea of adding more functionality, senses, or artistic flair to your body certainly seems to inspire people, given how much speculative fiction and fantasy incorporate it.
Over the years I have come across two individuals who have pushed the boundaries of personal body modification. This post will highlight a lecture given by each in which they explain their philosophy and the practical applications they have pioneered.
(Please note that both these presentations contain photos of surgery. Both presenters warn before showing graphic images, but please be aware that they are included.)
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The first of these two is called Lepht Anonym. They run a blog titled SAPIENS ANONYM on which they detail their various experiments. They have modifications including a sub-dermal magnet for sensing magnet fields, a sub-dermal RFID chip, as well as several other modifications which they discuss in this talk. In 2011 they gave a presentation at the 27th Chaos Communication Congress. Their talk covers the following:
- General Cybernetics and Transhumanism
- Why DIY?
- Principles of homebrew Transhumanism
- Projects Lepht is pursuing (South Paw directional sense)
- How can you participate?
Check this presentation out here:
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The second is Quinn Norton, who gave a talk entitled, "Body Hacking: Functional body modification" at 23C3 in 2007. Her talk covers the following:
- General ethos / motto
- Body Modification (perception and reality)
- Reasons and results
- What counts as 'enhancement'? (steroids, cosmetic surgery, etc.)
- Upcoming technology and medicine
- Likely societal outcomes (black market mods)
- How far is too far?
Check this presentation out here:
I hope you enjoy these talks as much as I have! For further reading, I recommend perusing Lepht's blog; it contains logs of her experiments as well as advice and guides to performing them.
Image sources:
* Cybernetics for the Masses, Part 1
† CUSP Conference presenter List