Chips in the body; cyborgs on the rise
Electronics in body
“You don’t really see much of it.” My girlfriend looked at my left hand with admiration. There was still a big plaster on it. It still felt a little soar. What happened? Between the thumb and forefinger of my left hand is now an NFC chip. A chip I can put information on and that I can use to open doors.
I was interviewed for the RTL5 television programme Galileo and during the broadcast the chip was implanted with me. A little further on in this article you can watch the video.
Chip implanting human
A few months ago I was at a meet-up of Permanent Beta. It was a gathering of all kinds of cyborgs, people who, like me, had implanted a chip in their bodies. Cyborgs is rather a large term, because is a pacemaker or an artificial leg really something other than a chip in my hand?
The term ‘cyborg’ was first used in an article in 1960 with the name ‘Cyborgs and Space’. That article is mainly about the challenges involved in travelling and surviving in space. Nowadays, people who have electronics in their bodies are called cyborgs. The word cyborg is a corruption of ‘cybernetics’ and ‘organism’.
I heard from others that they got very fierce reactions from people around them after placing their chip, whilst some even received threats. Luckily, reactions were not not that bad in my area. People (including my mother) are especially curious as to what I can do with it. She told me that she had read a story in the newspaper before about a woman who had also implanted a chip.
Video chip in human body
So in the spring of 2016 I was interviewed by Shelly Sterk for the RTL5 programme Galileo about biohacking. The chip was implanted in me during the broadcast.
What’s in my hand now?
The chip that is now in my hand was made by Dangerous Things (see picture above). This is the company of Amal Graafstra, one of my examples in the biohacking scene. NFC stands for ‘near field communication’. This means that the chip can only communicate at a short distance with a device that can read the chip.
One of the reasons why an NFC chip is so suitable for implantation is that the chip receives energy from the reader. So I did not have to implant a battery or accumulator in my finger besides my chip.
Chip in hand
The chip is made of super strong glass (Bioglas Schott 8625) and is made sterile. The chip is as big as a grain of rice: two millimetres in diameter and 12 millimetres long. The chip does not cause any aircraft malfunctions or problems at customs.
The most important argument for me is that the chip has (or at least seems to have) no health implications. The glass does not release any foreign metals into my body.
If I want, the chip will stay in place my whole life. However, I did it out: if I want, the chip will be out in no time.
With Tom, it’s clear where the chip is. I need you to look for me.
Did it hurt and other practical things
Chips are not implanted in a hospital, at a doctor’s or in a technology laboratory. No, there is a piercing shop in a side street of the Voorstraat in Utrecht. The owner (Tom) implanted the chip on me. Although interest in the chips is growing, regular piercings and tattoos are by far the most important source of income for him.
I told him I have experience with punctures, like giving blood at the blood bank. Compared to those needles, the needle that implanted the chip is a lot bigger. Not so strange, the needle has to make an opening through which the chip with its diameter of 2 millimeters has to pass. Tom (Piercing Utrecht): After six to eight weeks, the chip is really part of your body. It felt a little more painful than puncturing blood, but in the end it was not so bad. Honestly, I was pretty nervous, but maybe that was because of the television crew around me.
Feeling afterwards
Immediately after, the area on my hand felt quite soar but in the following days it quickly declined. Tom advised me not to exert too much strength with it. It takes between six to eight weeks for the body to completely encapsulate the chip. Another practical point; I had to buy a new phone to really be able to do things with the chip. My iPhone 5S does not have NFC technology. Now I bought a HTC One X from a good friend and put information on my chip.
I’ll soon be able to unlock my laptop with my chip.
What do I do with it?
The question I get the most is what I can do with it. I often have to chuckle. “Actually, I can’t do much with it right now. I could buy a lock, and then I could open it with my chip. I can unlock my phone with it.”
That’s funny, but not very useful. At the moment it only contains my contact information, as a kind of digital business card.
Why is that?
Then why did I do it? The reason is simple. I’m a biohacker and I want to try as hard as I can. So there’s a chip in my hand. I’m convinced this technology is going to be much bigger. We’re just at the beginning.
Impact of the chip
Edwin was a classmate of mine. We’ve been in touch since a couple of years now. Sometimes we meet and other times we catch up on the phone. He works in a care facility and was immediately curious when I told him about my chip. “Imagine what all this could mean in care, Peter!”
Edwin: What could you do with all this?!
That is what gets me excited. The chip that is in my hand right now, I may not be able to do much with it yet. But in the United States, companies and scientists are working on chips that can measure your heart rate, blood sugar level and other biological values in real time.
The chip can now replace my keys. Handy, because who does not loose their keys every now and then? But think about it. There is also an NFC chip on your bank card. Soon you will not need a bunch of keys and a wallet. Because all that information is in a chip. Think further: what if I can put my passport and driver’s license on the chip? My full identity on a grain of rice.
On the other hand, however, this involves all kinds of ethical, legal and political discussions. I like to crank up that discussion. With the chip in my hand.
In this part I will go deeper into the general trend of implanting technology into the body, also called DIY grinding.
DIY grinding: upgrades to the body
What are examples of people who take ‘biohacking’ literally? People doing DIY grinding, installing technology in their own bodies. The main goal is to expand the senses or to get new ones.
These examples go beyond the NFC chip in my hand:
Ears: Frank Swain (journalist BBC) hacked his hearing aid and can now hear wifi signals. Rich Lee has implanted a magnet in his ears, which allows him to use ‘echolocation’ like a bat.
FINGER: Jerry Jalava (a Finnish programmer) had an accident that caused him to lose his index finger. He replaced his missing finger with a USB stick. Dann Berg had a magnet implanted in his fingertip. This allows him to feel, for example, where electrical cables run into the wall.
ABDOMEN: Phone manufacturer Motorola is developing a pill for passwords that can communicate with your computer and other devices. You will not have to remember any passwords.
EYES: Chris James suffers from ‘retinitis pigmentosa’, which caused him to loose all his vision. By implanting a microchip at the back of his eye, he was able to gradually see more and more. The British media also call it ‘eye-borg’.
SKIN: Researchers at the University of Bern (Switzerland) have applied a solar cell under the skin. The purpose of this solar cell of about 3.6 square centimetres was to power a pacemaker. The test with 32 subjects showed that the cell provides more than enough energy in every season of the year.
The best known examples of DIY Grinding are Kevin Warwick, Neil Harbisson and people who implant an electronic compass in their bodies.
Kevin Warwick
One of the first people to experiment with implanting technology into the body was Kevin Warwick. Warwick is a professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading. In 1998 he started ‘Project Cyborg 1.0’ [link below].
In August 1998 a silicone chip was implanted in his upper arm. The chip emitted a signal that allowed a computer to track his whereabouts in the building. He was also able to use the chip to control doors, lights, heating and computers.
In 2002 he started ‘Project Cyborg 2.0’. The aim of this project is to investigate whether he could implant a new type of chip, with which his nervous system could exchange signals with a computer. The effect was that they could measure the signals from the nervous system in Warwick’s left arm on a computer and that they were also able to make him feel things by programming signals in the computer.
Cyborg Neil Harbisson
The best-known DIY grinder is Neil Harbisson. He can listen to colours, thanks to an antenna in his head. Not only normal colors, but also colors that normal people cannot see such as infrared and ultraviolet.
Neil was born with a hereditary defect, so he could only see different shades of grey. In 2004 the antenna was implanted in his skull after which he could hear colours. On the antenna, right in front of his eyes, there hangs the camera. That camera records the dominant light spectrum.
At the back of his antenna, near his skull, is a chip that translates the information from the camera into vibrations. These vibrations are perceived by the inner ear as tones. Each colour has its own tone.
Apart from the fact that his spectrum is wider than that of ‘ordinary’ people, he is also able to send images to his bionic eye. So he says he connects to the cameras of the International Space Station every day. In an interview with the NRC he says: “People don not realize that the space is full of colors.”
Skull implant
At the Brave New World congress 2017 in Leiden I spoke with Neil Harbisson. He said that the world is actually decorated by color. Think of the ‘Red Cross’, the country ‘Greenland’ or the way metro lines are set up in the city of Tokyo.
He talked about the advantages he now has with the implant in his skull. For example, he says that infrared can hear: “In a shop I can hear whether the cameras and motion sensors are on or not”. He laughs: “In banks, the cameras are usually off.”
The Bluetooth connection gives him even more possibilities. Besides the space, he has friends all over the world who take pictures and send them to Neil. “It is possible I’m getting the picture of a sunrise in Australia right now and can hear the colours of it.”
The implant in his skull is not the only upgrade. He also has an artificial dial connected to his phone via Bluetooth. A friend of his, Moon Ribas, has a molar like that. By clicking with their teeth, they are able to communicate with each other via Morse code. Even if they are hundreds of miles apart.
Compass in body
Brian McEvoy has developed a chip that works like a compass. You’ll feel a slight tremor as you head south. He calls this chip “Southpawn” [link at bottom]. A compass in the body can be seen as a new and extra sense.
Liviu Babitz is the founder and CEO of the company Cyborg Nest. This company produces the North Sense [link below]. This is a device that you apply to your body with piercings. Just like the Southpawn, you feel a small vibration. According to Liviu, this creates a new sense of space and orientation.
During the Biohacker Summit 2017 in Helsinki I interviewed Liviu Babitz. He had the compass implanted in his chest. He explains why he did this and shares his vision on the future of this particular technology.
Applications
It all sounds a bit exaggerated, like a compass in your chest or a magnet in your finger. Yet people have been helped immediately with chips in their bodies, like Chris James who could see them again and Neil Harbisson who can now hear colours.
In other domains and for other applications, electronics in the body can form a solution for many. For me, for example, this is a continuous measurement of all kinds of bodily functions. But also more practical. The Swedish train company SJ had a subcutaneous chip implanted at 100 commuters in 2017 to check in and out at the station.
In an interview with de Volkskrant, Wouter Serdijn, professor of bioelectronics in Delft, says that the chip under the skin is still a bit of a gimmick. “Most people think it’s too much of a hassle or just too scary.”
Somewhat similar is another project from Sweden. Employees and entrepreneurs in the startup hub Epicenter could implant a chip to open the door, print and buy things. This was not mandatory, but they organized parties where you could have a chip implanted.
Supplement: RFID chip in body, this is a form of NFC technology. I wrote this before I had a chip implanted in my hand.
RFID chip in body
Why would you implant a chip in your body? At the beginning of 2015 I was at a meetup of Permanent Beta about biohacking. A report on technology going fast, but not fast enough for me.
For my personal experiments I am curious about the effects of lifestyle on my body. Nutrition, exercise, meditation. Can you see the effects in your biomarkers? You can, of course, measure your blood values, monitor your heart rhythm variability or rely on your feelings.
Are we all going to be cyborgs?
How cool would it be if you implanted a chip in your body? That chip can then give me continuous updates on my blood sugar level, my cholesterol, sodium, testosterone, etc. I think it would be great to become a cyborg.
RFID chip in your hand
It’s not that far yet. Ruben organised the biohacking meetup at the Beurs van Berlage: “I also had a chip implanted in my hand”.
Ruben was one of 10 volunteers who had a chip implanted. The meetups around biohacking started from the people-with-a-chip-in-hun-hand who occasionally want to meet to discuss new developments in this area. One of them said, “Why did I do it? Well, just because it’s possible!”
Satanists and hand choppers
Not all reactions are positive. In the discussion afterwards, some said they were threatened. “That chip in your hand is the work of satanists” to “I get e-mails from people who threaten to cut my hand off”.
Putting technology in your body can trigger somewhat spicy reactions. On the other hand, it has long been accepted these days that we have pacemakers in our bodies.
Baby chipping?
What was the conclusion following the Satanists? New technology requires a political and social discussion about what you should be able to do with it and what you should not be able to do with it.
For me these sounds are recognizable: also around quantified self and Singularity University I often hear these sounds. Technology in itself is nothing, and it only gets exciting when it comes to how you apply it. Like somebody said, “Are we going to chip babies later?”
Is it a big step from bracelets not to lose your child on the beach to subcutaneous chips?
NFC and RFID technology
That’s the fun part about a meetup. Sometimes the conversation goes in all directions. The content of the evening was provided by Danny Haak, who talked about RFID and NFC technology. What were new insights for me?
#1RFID is a collective name for various technologies. NFC is also included, but the term NFC is actually just a marketing name.
#2In retail, RFID provides enormous efficiency benefits. Stock management is a breeze, with the latest RFID technology and hand scanners.
#3 The RFID receiver is charging when it is in the field of the RFID transmitter. It is a bit abstract how this works, but you can compare it to a magnetic field.
Tattoo as antenna
How do you make the step from RFID chips in the labels of your H&M t-shirt to measuring biomarkers? According to Danny it’s not that easy: “We still have some challenges there. Among other things, that has to do with the fact that the chips don not work so well near liquids.”
Also, the skin of your body is quite a barrier. Even though they are thinking about it: “The most difficult thing is the antenna. Maybe you can solve that by applying a tattoo to your skin with metal ink. It will serve as the antenna of your chip.”
Danny Haak
Conclusion
The technology is developing at lightning speed. Exponentially. More and more companies and people are working with subcutaneous chips. But that chip I want to implant in my body that continuously measures everything? It is not yet commercially available to private individuals.
However, it is available for for handy tinkerers or the DIY grinders. For example, Tim Cannon, who is also shown in the documentary by Floor and Laura, had the chip Circadia 1.0 placed in his arm that transmits biomedical information to his smartphone [link down below].
However, these DIY grinders are a very small group. In general, consumers are not yet comfortable with the introduction of technology into the body at all. The opinion is still very negative (-3), especially among groups who cannot decide on this themselves (children, prisoners, elderly people with dementia). Employees of companies that develop these techniques are extremely enthusiastic (3). They believe that these techniques really have a future.
Worldwide, according to Amal Graafstra, the CEO of Dangerous Things (the manufacturer of my NFC chip), there are about 8,000 people who have had a chip or other electronics placed in their bodies. Voluntarily then – patients with a peacemaker or hearing implant are not included.
I geniunly believe that electronics in our bodies is the next step from where we are right now: electronics on our bodies. In health care, in science and especially by enthusiastic ‘DIY tinkerers’, there is a lot of experimentation and research on this. They are the forerunners right now, but in time this will become more and more normal.
It actually makes a lot of sense. Neil Harbisson puts it very nicely: “We have been given five senses by nature, why not take a sixth or seventh?”
It is inherent to us as human beings to always want more, to live longer and to expand our possibilities. A chip is a logical consequence to this. The question is not whether we are going to do it, but more when and in what form. It is therefore important to think about matters such as privacy and security now, because developments are moving at such a rapid pace.