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On the weirdness of doing DIY implants
"Well, that's all clever and you sound like you know what you're doing but you should be committed and get a psych review"
Comments
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yes.
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It's the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it mentality'
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Yeah this is a place my parents and I definitely differ. Most, if not all, people were raised in a mentality that either the human body is 1. Perfect (the whole god created you in his image and thus the human body must be perfect) or 2. Should not be changed for ethical reasons, which can very a whole hell of a lot.It takes a great deal of time and intentional effort to break out of such a mentality, but to people inside it we are not just weird, but mentally ill, because we don't share the same notions about the human body. I think a lot of people think that transhumanists and grinders are for some reason discontent with their bodies and want to escape, and that's why they consider us mentally ill. For me, however, that's not the case at all. I'm a 3rd year bio major, and I've come to see the human body as an incredibly beautiful machine, the most extraordinary piece of engineering mother nature has ever produced. I'm quite happy to be in control of such a machine. But it's not a perfect machine, and it's not terribly well adapted to modern society. That's where we come in.
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It probably doesn't help that some grinders actually ARE discontent with their bodies, and then someone sees that and cognitive bias kicks in and won't let go.
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I wrote a lengthy post and realized it was more than anyone would want to read. To summarize: "it seems socially acceptable to do body modification stuff (piercings, tattoos and even subdermal metal implants to give horns and stuff) for purely cosmetic stuff"
I disagree, it’s only somewhat socially acceptable. There is a narrow range of mods that “everyone” will accept without comment. Earlobe piercing and tattoos that can be covered by clothes are mainstream (for western culture). Other ear and some facial piercings as well as more body tattoos are gaining ground. Fortunately the narrow concept of "what is acceptable" has been broadening in recent times. In the past sixty years there has been a huge acceleration in accepting body mods.
Biohackers are riding that accelerated curve. You will keep running into IRC trolls but I suspect biohacking will shoot past the extreme cosmetic mods and gain acceptance sooner because most are not as "in your face" visible and, as you pointed out, are functional. Previous functional mods (glasses, watches, Lasik etc) often had an easier time with being accepted than purely cosmetic ones. The hold back here will be the DIY aspect,the average person has strong conditioning to only see a medical professional, and many have an over-empathizing factor (“damn that had to hurt" *their hand moves to cover body part in case a wild piercer jumps out of the bushes and tries to pierce them*).
As the mods mature and new ones are developed that offer significant improvement to a person’s quality of life we will see the common pattern develop of greater adoption and eventual acceptance. -
My own attitude on the "discontent with the human body" thing is that the human body is an amazing biological machine but it's also buggy as hell. On top of that, it's MY machine and just as I root all my android devices and jailbreak my games consoles I want to mod my body to make it more useful too.
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Earlier today I implanted my m31 and this same guy said he'd call the police on me if he had my address. People REALLY do respond badly to this stuff.
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Give him it he will get arrested for a false report lol
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Normally people just think im weird and the curious will ask. Never get the lunatics really. Except my family. But they're very old fashioned. Ya know, no tattoos or peicings etc etc. Dad's always been good about most of it though. Anything more than a tattoo or the magnets freak him out. Didn't respond well to the eye drops. and i doubt when I get to the heavy duty upgrades he'll be happy
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The responses I've had from people have ranged from extreme interest to accusations of mental problems to outright horror.
Like @chironex, the worst responses have come from my family, to the point where I have simply decided to keep them "in the dark" as I've gone forward. My mother's response was the worst I've had. Her reaction when it moved from my initial talking about doing a mod to my walking into her house with four fingers bandaged up the day following my first implantation of magnets was something I don't care to think about often.
My coworkers have gone from initial skepticism a year ago to acceptance and at least some interest now. I suspect a few will get magnets at some point.
The discussion I had on the DJI forums (drone manufacturer's website) yielded responses that were almost universally supportive and generated alot of interest, but those who fly drones face social stigmas themselves and know that just because you don't understand a thing, that doesn't make it "bad."
My own feelings run like yours, @garethnelsonuk. The body is buggy and while it has amazing capabilities naturally, it's not as feature-rich as I want it to be.
Evolution rarely produces better than "good enough." We, through intelligent design, can do better.
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Tell them to fuck off.
