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Biohacking – the next step in human evolution or a dead end? | Jowan Österlund | TEDxBratislava


[Music]
didn’t anyone here ever forget their
keys loose your wallets I did too
on more than one occasion and I hate it
now though I carry it with me at all
times most of it at least
well not as carry and actually holding
it but actually installed inside my hand
the interesting part though isn’t how I
install it rather the journey to this
point it’s kind of an unplanned journey
that didn’t only change the game in the
technology field but started creating a
global community a community where
people using this are evolving everyday
convenience we can do easier travel we
can do faster and safer payment we can
do something as mundane as opening a
door I mean the opportunities are
endless so this is a very short story
about how I ended up here and I want to
give you a glimpse of the vision on how
to keep growing this community you see
as a kid I was always in a everything
sci-fi technology role-playing games
video games you name it be in a fairly
wild outdoors kid I ended up with a lot
of injuries a lot so I often wished I
had these kind of superpowers either
indestructibility or self-healing you
name it it wasn’t until I read an
article about Kevin Warwick though he’s
got massive skills and knowledge in AI
robotics bioethics
you name it by childhood memory and
childhood dream kind of got rekindled so
I started looking into RFID and this
type of technology that he used it to
open his door it’s a laboratory it’s his
office and it didn’t take long until we
found actually implantable technology
that we could use so having my history
in the piercing community I’ve performed
some 30,000 piercings and body
modifications safety always comes first
so have enough safety this is given a
profound sense of security for for the
community since we always do things in
the exact same way anyway this
technology is like you saw it’s everyday
technology that you’d use with your
phone get on the train you get on the
bus you bleep in the cash register to
pay for your stuff and all of that we
can incorporate into this tiny microchip
and the big difference here is you’re
not gonna drop it are you so doing this
research I got to know that I could do
it on everyone I would do it on myself
anyway for sure but I wasn’t alone I had
this one friend that kind of had the
same ideas and ideologies like I did so
he was the lucky man to become
superhuman by my hand for the first time
and you know being super excited about
something really want to do it quick you
want to change the world in an hour we
kind of forgot as I well I totally
forgot to do a functionality test
and guess what didn’t work however I had
my Johnny mnemonic moment I felt like
John mnemonic it was amazing I
programmed my implant with a call
trigger that as soon as I tapped my
phone to the chip it called my wife now
that bonus points that’s kind of when I
realized that this was what the world’s
been missing all along or at least I’ve
been missing it because we’re filled up
and packed with gadgets doodads
wearables and knickknacks but they just
take you that far don’t they I mean this
was something else
basically it gave me the opportunity to
open up this entirely new discipline
with my vast experience and body
modification and this childhood passion
which merged and positioned itself in
between the high tech world and the
business world and that’s always been
off-limits for me I mean okay doesn’t
look like I have a PhD at work at MIT
and produce implants or smart implant
technology but with that having been
brought up in the Pearson community and
always wanting to share this says if you
do this in an open-source community it
will develop faster it will become
better it will become available for
anyone instead of gating in keeping it
to those MIT and PhD deals with this
community which has grown pretty rapidly
over the last years we have managed to
change logistics and even some of the
biggest companies
Swedish railways are now allowing buyer
hacks implants as a ticket carrier and
that was three months that’s huge and
that’s the impact we can have on society
changing by just doing new stuff this
though is pyrite so what is what is this
the word hacking I mean very familiar
with the news platform life hacker
awesome awesome platform and there it is
again hacking hacker hacking you usually
think about a hooded dude hacking your
account cyber criminals but when you
take a gadget and use it for something
else
and mix it with another thing to make a
completely different thing that’s a hack
right and that’s what we’re doing here
hacking we just taking stripping away
the word hacking from that
Cyberdyne hacker and I say every
category you got mainstream and we got
the extreme these guys Tim cannon and
Shaun Sarver from grin house we’re
pioneering and design and implementation
of larger implants they’re grinders and
these are just for funds and giggles
they’re LEDs that light up five LEDs
light up if you put a magnet on which
80’s disco also deluxe however imagine
changing those lights into LEDs instead
not LD sorry but sensors so you get five
years of sensors on there instead
turning that into interpreter for your
body
Neal Harvison created his own sense he
can’t see color at all so he created
this and this lets him here color by
vibration so he can walk out the door
and hear a symphony of color that’s also
using biohacking when my personal hero
Elon Musk with the neuro-link Corp which
will enable you to upload and download
thoughts and probably in the future
connect us with supercomputers
protecting us from artificial
intelligence so the list just get water
when you go into the medical arena which
we chose to stay parallel to because
it’s a jungle of bureaucracy and you
don’t wanna go there
we’re chosen to keep it simple so we
want to make it really available for
anyone anyone who wants it can use it
develop it make it better and keep it
growing because if you don’t keep it
easy to get amazing to have and easy to
get rid of I think you’re doing it wrong
the potential for this is amazing I mean
five sensors or just making a seamless
everyday interaction with it digital
hyper-connected world I could stand here
for days so I’m not stopping air though
it’s just teaching my body how to speak
machine just isn’t enough I really want
my body to be able to speak to me tell
me what’s up hey drink buddy get on the
band you gotta go biking stop smoking
whatever or warn me like if you keep
doing this mmm it’s going downhill so
together with a phone which basically is
a part of us already
we got a perfect match got everything we
need
impossible dreams have come true since
the pyramids right in our school too but
today
things are moving a lot faster this is
the digital Renaissance and this is the
art and I know you’d rather do fun stuff
playing PlayStation or be out drinking
beer in the Sun rather than looking for
keys thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]
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