text / Dongfang Yiluo
Recently, the death of a person has caused great concern. Aaron Traywick, a 28-year-old well-known biohacker and CEO of Ascendance Biomedical, was found dead in a SPA center in Washington while receiving "floatation therapy" in a sensory deprivation floating cabin. The incident sparked heated discussions and brought the special group of "biological hackers" into people's field of vision again.
What is a "biological hacker"? In fact, it is a group of people who experiment with their bodies. They cover a wide range of fields, including all kinds of high-tech research, but also controversial genetic modification, and even the connection between the human body and the Internet. Some of them injected reagents into their eyes, some implanted chips in their hands, and some implanted electronic devices in their bodies.
They claim that they are engaged in "public science", in order to explore the limits of human physical ability, so that more people can access high-end scientific resources and equipment, or explore the treatment of various difficult diseases through genetic modification method. But in the eyes of many people, they are "freaks", aliens, and even showing off the so-called "personality."
So, what kind of group is "biological hacker"? How was this group born? How do they use their bodies to break through the "taboo"? What is the significance of these experiments to humans?
1. To what extent is the biological hacker "horrifying the world" by experimenting with the body?
has many imaginations about modern or future technology in various film and television works. Lucy in "Super Body" was forced to implant the new drug CPH4 and her physical fitness and intelligence rapidly improved, and she possessed incredible superpowers such as telepathy, telepathy, and spiritual space-time shuttle. John Nash in "Beautiful Mind" suffers from schizophrenia. In his illusion, he is a spy injected with a chip. The information stored in this chip allows him to freely enter and exit the forbidden area, and use professional knowledge to provide relevant departments. Important information.
Of course, these are just movies, and the audience may not be able to take them seriously. But in reality, there are people like the protagonist of the movie who are doing all kinds of strange-looking experiments with their bodies. They are biological hackers. The birth of the
group stems from two relatively large-scale sports.
is a DIY biology movement that promotes the openness and sharing of resources and attracts more people to participate in interesting experiments. These people generally do experiments in garages and basements. Because the financial capacity is not enough to buy expensive experimental equipment, they usually choose to buy cheap equipment on eBay, so they are called "DIY biological sports."
The movement popularized the “scientific exploration” that was originally a niche group, attracted public participation, and allowed ordinary people to bypass scientists and contact science and technology, effectively preventing the monopoly of technology from being mastered by a few professionals.
Another movement is called Grider, which refers to "popular science" enthusiasts who believe that scientific knowledge belongs to all mankind. This group likes to make changes to their bodies, improve their own functions, and explore human limits. These people are the weirdest and most unacceptable biohackers in the eyes of the world.
So what did they do that "shock the world" and make the world talk to them? can reflect the "unconventional" characteristics of this group through a few examples.
A few years ago, a biohacker injected serum containing Ce6 extract, dimethyl sulfoxide and other ingredients into his eyeballs in order to obtain short-term night vision. Two hours after the injection, he was able to see a palm-sized object 10 meters away in the dark, recognize the direction of movement of a person 50 meters away, distinguish various signs and signs, and his eyes were like cats. The eyes returned to normal the next day without any sequelae.
This makes him look a lot like the hero of a science fiction movie, but this experiment is very meaningful for groups with eye diseases such as night blindness. Some biological hackers in
will implant magnets in their hands to sense magnetic fields. After installing the magnets at your fingertips, you have a sense of touch for the invisible world, and it feels like "opening the door to a new world."
in China last yearIn the "Security Training Camp" of the Internet Security Conference, there were 14 implants in the body. Patrick Paumen, a Dutch biohacker known as "the world's top biohacker", demonstrated the movement of the magnet inside at his fingertips.
In 2013, a biohacker named Rich Lee implanted a miniature magnet in his ear beads in order to enhance his hearing. Since then, he can hear sounds at a greater distance than ordinary people. In addition, Rich Lee also hopes to implant an ultrasonic rangefinder, a thermometer, and a Geiger counter to measure radiation values in his body.
This looks cool, just like the "Shunfeng Er" in Chinese mythology and the Western "Batman". In practice, it should be of great help to actors and hosts who need to prompt lines, intelligence staff, and people with weak hearing. The
Rich Lee seems to be very interested in miniature things, and he invented a miniature motor called Lovetron 9000, which can be implanted in men to "turn them into "perpetual motion machines" and bring happiness to their partners. According to Lee's description, the device can improve male abilities: "It can raise me from the average male level in Utah to the level of a half-orc". In order for this product to enter the market, Rich Lee asked Aaron Traywick, who had just passed away, for help, but he gave up because the latter asked for $5,000 in exchange for 75% of Lovetron 9000's sales profit.
In the eyes of ordinary people, the above behaviors are already extraordinary, but there are still people who think that the implantation of microchips is not addictive, and they have to change their genes. The
incident is still inseparable from Aaron Traywick. His most famous genetic drug test was that he helped the programmer Tristan Roberts, who was infected with AIDS, use gene editing therapy to fight the virus.
The genetic drug N6 they chose has never been tested on humans before, so Tristan Roberts can also be considered as a tester. Roberts broadcast live on the Internet the whole process of the experiment by injection. Many people have dissuaded it before, but Roberts said, "This thing is not supervised and no one can stop me."
can see that bio-hackers are not satisfied with just doing routine experiments like ordinary scientific research. They can spare their bodies and even complete experiments with their lives. They continue to explore and "upgrade" their bodies, rushing all the way on the road of "black" entering the human system. But in this process, they have also been criticized a lot, and even suspected of undermining ethics. So, does the biohacker who constantly break through the "taboo" devote his life to science or just to show his personality?
2. Biological hacking may be of great significance to human processes, but supervision and regulation are equally important.
The so-called "taboo technique" is mostly used in games and refers to technologies that are difficult or even impossible to achieve. This is used to describe the biological hackers The behavior is quite appropriate. In order to make a breakthrough, they even paid the price of their lives.
The cause of Aaron Traywick's death is currently uncertain, but many people think it is related to his own body test in February this year. At that time, Traywick took off his pants on the stage of a bio-hacking conference called BDYHAX and injected his own company's herpes treatment agent into his leg. The drug has neither been tested nor approved by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration).
The whole experiment was broadcast live on Facebook, and the discussion among netizens was intense. Some people think that Traywick is a "game changer", and some people marvel at Traywick's courage. But there are also many people who think Traywick's actions are too impulsive and outrageous. He doesn't even know the correct way to use a syringe, exposing himself to a huge risk of infection. This is also an important reason why there are opinions that Traywick's death is directly related to this injection. Actions like
can naturally attract attention, but this is not the entire purpose of biohacking. Traywick established the company to overcome cancer, herpes,The damage caused by HIV, aging and other diseases and natural laws. This original intention is commendable, but in practice, Traywick may be really reckless, especially since he tried his best to avoid industry standard rules and supervision by regulatory agencies.
Trying to circumvent supervision should be regarded as a "common problem" in the biohacking circle, but it is also an important reason for the birth and development of this group.
You should know that the FDA's approval process for new drug therapies is extremely strict and complicated, so the process is expensive and slow. Of course, this is to ensure maximum safety, but many small pharmaceutical companies are tossed into bankruptcy because of this process, and only large companies with capital strength can handle it.
In addition, several major pharmaceutical companies in the United States have gradually controlled the field of new drug research and development, so they have the right to price. One of the credos of biohacking is to allow new technologies to benefit ordinary users. Therefore, many bio-hackers believe that the FDA and large pharmaceutical companies jointly create a monopoly, and they position themselves as a "fighter" to break the monopoly. The most important thing about
is that most biohackers are passionate about new technologies and new treatments. They believe that their experiments can help humans improve their abilities and break through existing limitations. Or it can cure intractable diseases and prolong life, or even reach immortality. They study various unproven cutting-edge medical technologies, and implant drugs and chips into their bodies to achieve these goals.
From the perspective of popular science, biohacking is worthy of admiration. All of 's research results adhere to the principle of "resource sharing", and all are published on the Internet and are completely free. This helps to raise more people's understanding of science and stimulate public interest in technology. Some of their research results have indeed greatly promoted the cure of human diseases and self-exploration.
But on the other hand, the controversy surrounding biohacking is not entirely unreasonable. They are all extremely smart people, but sometimes they ignore ethical restrictions in order to achieve their goals. Going forward and breaking through the constraints are of course the qualities that scientific inquirers should have, but when these behaviors lack supervision, they will have an impact on the standards and may even hit the bottom line. The evil consequences of
’s unsupervised exploration behavior have already appeared. Traywick’s accidental death seems to be a warning: to break through the “taboo”, there must be a degree. While biohackers are conducting scientific and technological exploration and development, appropriate Supervision is also very necessary.