5 ms·

I don't think it means anything really. Judging from that article, the scope of his biohacking was nothing more than getting treatments injected into people bef

I don't think it means anything really. Judging from that article, the scope of his biohacking was nothing more than getting treatments injected into people before they went through the many years of tediously long testing and approval. He didn't accomplish much, much of his fame was from hype and reckless stunts. He established a company, touted a bunch of unfounded achievements and breakthroughs, and ultimately came up empty. It even says at the end that he was shunned from the biohacking scene after his herpes stunt, so it's not like the biohacking scene took off in popularity. For as long of an article as that was, it said very little. I think his view of getting people treated without the lengthy process of following regulations, laws, and approval was noble in a sense, but too few people feel the same as him for any meaningful progress to be made. If you have a company that is offering experimental treatments to human test subjects who agree to be tested on, more power to them. I wouldn't call that biohacking, just using experimental treatment. I was surprised at first to learn that biohacking in this sense was about medical treatments, I've always looked at it as becoming one with technoloy, such as putting chips in your hands that serve specific functions(unlocking doors, logging in, etc).

logfromblammo 8y ago
When I think of biohacking, I also think first of the people who implant magnets into their fingertips and RFID tags into their thumbs. I think about the folks that make their own prosthetic limbs with additive volume printers. I think about the blind folks with artificial retinas, and the deaf folks with artificial cochleas. I think about people who have had cataract surgery that walk around all day with near-black filters, to see what the world looks like in UV, or infrared. I think about the people that wore vibrating compass belts, and the people who wore prism goggles. I think about Newton sticking knitting needles in his eye sockets. A bit later, I think about people who synth their own custom peptide chains, and the people who try to CRISPR/CAS9 their own DNA. Maybe also the people who make designer drugs in the quest for the ultimate legal high or the ultimate undetectable sport doping. Taking medications developed by someone else, that have not gone through FDA approval, doesn't even register on the radar.
- na85 8y ago
  I think you've hit on the mark with this comment. When I first saw the headline I thought it related to the death of someone like Lepht Anonym who is the first person I ever read about in the biohacking scene. Implanted RFID chips and magnets in their hands, etc. Really neat stuff even if the thought of self-surgery makes my skin crawl. In my opinion, simply ignoring industry regulations aka "pulling an Uber" is not hacking by any sense of the word.
freddie_mercury 8y ago
Yeah, this struck me as the kind of article that suffers from the rush to press. Then again if they had waited a few months -- for autopsy results to come in, for effects of his death on the community to be clear, etc -- then maybe there wouldn't have been enough meat for an article at all.
- kanzure 8y ago
  Autopsy report already says ketamine overdose. edit: source is the-scientist.com
  - joemi 8y ago
    Source?
  - wavefunction 8y ago
    That was my first assumption, given the circumstances involving the sensory-deprivation tank as the site of death.
    - sincerely 8y ago
      Do people often take dissassociatives in sensory deprivation tanks?
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  They want to have their cake and eat it too. In a few months, if there's any interest in that subculture whatsoever, someone will probably write a column on the impact this death had (or had not).
LyndsySimon 8y ago
My impression of the term "biohacking" was that it referred to basically anyone with a wet lab outside a formal research setting - the biotech equivalent of an inventor with a 3D printer or a CNC mill in his garage turning out prototypes in relative isolation.

logfromblammo 8y ago

When I think of biohacking, I also think first of the people who implant magnets into their fingertips and RFID tags into their thumbs. I think about the folks that make their own prosthetic limbs with additive volume printers. I think about the blind folks with artificial retinas, and the deaf folks with artificial cochleas. I think about people who have had cataract surgery that walk around all day with near-black filters, to see what the world looks like in UV, or infrared. I think about the people that wore vibrating compass belts, and the people who wore prism goggles. I think about Newton sticking knitting needles in his eye sockets. A bit later, I think about people who synth their own custom peptide chains, and the people who try to CRISPR/CAS9 their own DNA. Maybe also the people who make designer drugs in the quest for the ultimate legal high or the ultimate undetectable sport doping. Taking medications developed by someone else, that have not gone through FDA approval, doesn't even register on the radar.

na85 8y ago
I think you've hit on the mark with this comment. When I first saw the headline I thought it related to the death of someone like Lepht Anonym who is the first person I ever read about in the biohacking scene. Implanted RFID chips and magnets in their hands, etc. Really neat stuff even if the thought of self-surgery makes my skin crawl. In my opinion, simply ignoring industry regulations aka "pulling an Uber" is not hacking by any sense of the word.

freddie_mercury 8y ago

Yeah, this struck me as the kind of article that suffers from the rush to press. Then again if they had waited a few months -- for autopsy results to come in, for effects of his death on the community to be clear, etc -- then maybe there wouldn't have been enough meat for an article at all.

kanzure 8y ago
Autopsy report already says ketamine overdose. edit: source is the-scientist.com
- joemi 8y ago
  Source?
- wavefunction 8y ago
  That was my first assumption, given the circumstances involving the sensory-deprivation tank as the site of death.
  - sincerely 8y ago
    Do people often take dissassociatives in sensory deprivation tanks?
TeMPOraL 8y ago
They want to have their cake and eat it too. In a few months, if there's any interest in that subculture whatsoever, someone will probably write a column on the impact this death had (or had not).

LyndsySimon 8y ago

My impression of the term "biohacking" was that it referred to basically anyone with a wet lab outside a formal research setting - the biotech equivalent of an inventor with a 3D printer or a CNC mill in his garage turning out prototypes in relative isolation.