Body Modifications (Body Mods) & Monitors are the technological advancements we use to alter our bodies. Be they direct alterations like tech-advanced tattoos, smart patches, or even the monitors we use to learn more about our bodies and alter our health, these are the tech tools we can use to strengthen our bodies and define our sense of self.
A host of newly available tools are on the market now and more are coming; and for those that aren’t, there is a hack for that! These mods will change the way we look. They change the way we sleep. They will even change how we get through locked doors!
Re-Defining Our Bodies Through Tech
Maybe today’s body mods aren’t quite like the body plating (layered and anchored armored plastics/metals onto human skin) of Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. or the “double-edged razor-sharp blades that snick straight out from her fingers,” of Molly Millions in William Gibson’s classic Neuromancer, but they are changing what it means to be human. Gone are the days where we are limited by our biology. We now have the ability to hi-tech our low lives.
There are three levels of exploration that we use at BCB Cyber to understand and engage this movement.
Monitors and other portable gear that allow us to keep track of and gain knowledge about our bodies in order to adjust our physical well-being form the first level.
The second is comprised of temporary tools for alteration like printed tattoos and food hacks.
And ultimately, biohacking (cyberpunk hard-on whereby we mix that most punk ethic of hacking with the modification of our own bodies) represented by the likes of the grinder community illustrates the most advanced level. The first two are covered below, whereas bio-hacking is covered more fully in our separate page on Robotics and Body Augmentation.
Whichever level we find ourselves in, we have the opportunity to make more out of ourselves be it by knowledge, aesthetic, or ability. In this way, technology allows us to be more than the world wants us to be. We can re-define who we are.
1 Ground Level Up: Cyber-Health Devices
Gauging by an early interest in the technology, devices used to monitor our health are just at the forefront of a mega-adoption. One highly reputable business source links the fact that over 80% of consumers are willing to wear fitness tech! The market is already booming and producing a wide variety of technologies to watch over our health.
It’s Not Just Apple Watch or Fitbit Anymore…
2 Getting Going: Cyber-Health Life Mods
Giving ourselves the ability to self-define and even re-define our health and our look is essential in the quest for who we want to be. Even though we aren’t quite to skin-grafting onto ourselves shape-shifting designs, there are many ways we can use tech to alter our health and physical appearance to define who we want to be.
Life mods in this regard include everything from semi-permanent tattoos to a closer examination and implementation of the food we eat.
Tech can have a major impact on our Health if we choose to use it, change it, and apply it in all its various forms. This is not just for the mega-corporation, it can be for the individual.
Best of Tech in Food Production includes Drones, Food Hacking, GMOs, and even 3D printed foods. However, some of the more unexpected, yet highly impactful elements include simpler elements like recipe access and expanded access to local foodstuffs with tech like app-based food delivery.
We are no longer bound by the confines of our outward appearance. Skin color is irrelevant. Who we are underneath matters and we can choose to reflect that person through new tech tools that allow us to rebrand our appearance. One such tool is that of the on-demand, printable, and semi-permanent tattoo. One step closer to those shape-shifting designs, Inkbox gives us the next leap in physical alteration.
3 Ultimate: Cyber-Health BioHacks
Long have cyberpunks long dreamed of the advancement of the cyborg into our lives. Cyborg samurai may be a ways off but, be they our own enhancements or the people we live and work with, cybernetic improvement has long been a cherished goal of high-tech, low-life and is now becoming a reality.
We are not talking about the traditional botox or liposuction here. While we are still in the technological infancy of such betterments there is a growing movement of individuals, known as grinders, seeking to make this a reality sooner rather than later. Adherents to the understanding that tools and knowledge of science belong to everyone, grinders are looking to make tech their physical reality.
RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) tags and magnets implanted under the skin in order to gain entry to locked doors, store information, even perform parlor tricks, is considered readily available and ready at our fingertips, forgive the pun! These individuals are today, adding bio-safe chips and other enhancements into their own bodies to increase their capability.
However we seek to redefine our physical selves, be it lose weight, find peace of mind, increase overall fitness and energy, or simply to change our look, the tech to do it is now available to fuel our passion. The best part of these new devices is that they have focused on us the individual. At once the danger and the benefit, we can use these devices to aid us in our endeavors but should always do so with a skeptical eye. We can now collect/store the data about us, what we do with it should also be up to us.