Science and medicine Body hacking, the application of hacker ethics to improve one's own body. Do-it-yourself biology, a movement in which individuals and small organizations study biology. I quantified myself, measuring various biomarkers and behaviors to try to optimize health. Biohackers is a German series created by Christian Ditter.
It tells an exciting story about friendship, love and revenge at a German university that is overshadowed by a revolutionary biohacking technology and its ethical implications. Don't expect the series to offer deep scientific knowledge or fascinating character arcs, because biohacking is just the backdrop for a revenge plot that seems a bit hasty. A subgroup of biohackers called Molinders goes so far as to implant devices such as computer chips in their bodies. As biohacking begins to appear more frequently in the headlines and, recently, in a fascinating Netflix series called Unnatural Selection, it's worth clarifying some of the basics.
Some biohackers believe that by taking advantage of technology, they will be able to live longer but stay younger. In person, they conduct experiments and take classes at “hacklabs”, improvised laboratories open to the public, and attend any of the dozens of biohacking conferences held every year. Like many members of the biohacking community, Medvedik was frustrated by the way the medical system is holding back progress in the fight against aging. Biohackers congregate in dedicated online networks, in Slack and WhatsApp groups.
WeFast, for example, is for those who fast intermittently. Since it can cover a dizzying range of activities, I am going to focus mainly on biohacking, defined as the attempt to manipulate the brain and body to optimize performance, outside the scope of traditional medicine. Biohacking, also known as home biology, is an extremely broad and amorphous term that can cover a wide range of activities, from conducting scientific experiments with yeasts or other organisms to tracking sleep and diet and changing one's own biology by pumping blood from a younger person through the veins in the hope of combating aging. Zayner, the biohacker who once injected himself with CRISPR DNA, has also had health problems for years, and some of his biohacking activities have been explicit attempts to cure himself.
Luckily, biohackers generally don't seem interested in dethroning experience to such a dangerous degree; many simply don't believe that they should be prevented from accessing scientific discoveries because they lack conventional credentials, such as a doctorate. It could be said that what differentiates biohacking is not that it is a different kind of activity, but that the activities are carried out with a particular mentality. Even so, biohackers talk about making such important changes that the risks involved are also important. When she learns of the groundbreaking results of biohacking research that have fallen into the wrong hands, Mia must decide whether to protect her friends or avenge her brother's death.
The biohackers I spoke to said that restrictive regulation would be a counterproductive response to biohacking because it would only make the practice go underground. These are all types of biohacking, a broad term to refer to a lifestyle that is becoming increasingly popular, and not just in Silicon Valley, where it really took off.
