Cyborg Next Door : Biohacking, Digital Implants & the Merging of Man & Machine
[Tweet “The scientific method isn’t reserved for people with lab coats and degrees. @timthecyborg”]The scientific method isn’t reserved for people with lab coats and degrees.
By all outward appearances, Tim Cannon looks like a fairly ordinary guy. If you saw him on the streets of his hometown of Pittsburgh, he’d probably blend in.
But on the inside, he’s far from ordinary. What sets him apart are not only his several electronic implants that make him part cyborg, but the fact that he has done this himself – at home, outside of the lab, without the help of a team of surgeons, using affordable, safe, open-source technology.
He’s the co-founder of an organization called Grindhouse Wetware, and he’s a biohacker, a do-it-yourself technologist pushing the limits of integrating technology with the human body – and he’s bringing it to the mainstream, so that it’s accessible to everyone.
Tim joins me for a discussion of his own personal history with DIY biohacking and implantation, as well as some broader philosophical musings on technology, the state of the human condition and where we might be going technically and morally as a society.
[Tweet “I am done with non-functional piercings. @timthecyborg”]I am done with non-functional piercings.
IN THIS EPISODE
- What is “biohacking” and who are “grinders?”
- The people and organizations behind this DIY biohacker movement.
- How Tim and people like him are using affordable, open-source technology to enhance the human body – from the inside, out.
- The chronology of Tim’s implants, and what’s next for him.
- How implants can rewire the brain and create new sense experiences.
- Why Tim doesn’t use painkillers during implant procedures.
- Where you draw the line between art and practicality.
- How biohacking will change art, culture and the way we interact with one another.
- Why, in an age on non-invasive “wearable” technology, we would want to implant rather than wear.
- Combining traditional mindfulness with advanced technology to achieve powerful new results.
- The question of freewill, designer children, and how Tim is creating a race of real-life spell casters.
[Tweet “If we combine technology with the process of mindfulness we can accelerate our progress.”]If we combine technology with the process of mindfulness we can accelerate our progress.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW
- Tim’s organization Grindhouse Wetware – and on Facebook – and Twitter
- Dangerous Things – Custom Gadgetry for the Discerning Hacker
- Steve Haworth (body modification artist) on Wikipedia
- Grinder’s Discussion Forum: biohack.me
- North Paw Directional Anklet Kit
- Hacklab – Toronto’s Hacker Collective
[Tweet “Nature does not have our comfort in mind. @timthecyborg”]Nature does not have our comfort in mind.
WHERE TO FIND TIM CANNON
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