Social reaction to implants

Hey everybody,
This is actually my first post on here since I had the NFC implant from Dangerous Things installed in my left hand a few days ago, which I've been enjoying immensely. However, bringing it up in conversation/broaching the topic with others has had mixed results.  I'm curious, what kinds of reactions have other people had to their implants?  I'm also curious as to how you guys have brought it up in social encounters. I'm usually fairly tactful, but most of the people I've tried to talk to about it have said something along the lines of "huh, that's kinda creepy."  I'm just wondering how others have overcome this.
    Thanks,
            Rclifford
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Comments

  • I usually don't directly bring it up. Believe it or not my mother does when I'm with her and they are generally more curious then anything. When I tell them about it I usually give them the why with out them asking and try sounding as excited as possible (without sounding fake). I also through in the I could use it to run my car like my mothers jeep that has the keyless entry and start. That's usually a head turner.

    I did get taken to a neighbors place by my wife one time because the person she told was VERY interested which was quite a nice change then trying to simply rationalize it for some one.

    My friends that I have usually joke around telling me I'm trying to become a robot....but they really don't care either way and it's not really something that comes up in conversation.

    FYI I have a RFID implant in my hand.
  • Eh, my mother doesn't usually say much (I don't really talk with her about the topic much, though). My father, on the other hand, is slightly worried. To him, it's a matter of the risk and investment being greater than the reward and benefits. 

    Most of my friends think it might be interesting or cool. Or they just tease me about it, because it's a novelty. 

    I've yet to get any implants yet. What's helped the most in my various conversations has been keeping everything grounded in logic and facts, and skirting around the topic of the actual procedure, because I've got a lot of friends who are squeamish about blood and pain. If you focus on the potential, the practicality, and the usefulness of your RFID in daily life, that'd probably mitigate the creepy factor. 
  • I myself am working in the process of getting a pair of magnets into my hands, first procedure. I have talked to two friends about it...^^'


    The first one started freaking out, thought I had finally snapped and was like... going all "Sacrificing my blood to some evil higher power to obtain a sixth sense" nonsense... He was extremely worried about me to the point of physical illness. Yes, he's a huge motherly-acting baby. But he also really cares, which is a nice change of pace from most people. c-c

    The second friend, who has absolutely no ability to understand complex topic matters (he's very intelligent, just happens to be a little mentally slower with scholastic knowledge) Simply stated the body isn't meant to be changed, and that it is a stupid idea to try. That I'm going to lose my hands and die and that I'll blame him for not stopping me.



    I presented the first one with like... A 22 page report composed from piles of information I have learned to explain everything basic to him about the procedure and lay down a basic fundamental knowledge. A week later after still being overprotective, he apologized and said he supports me, and respects the knowledge I have accrued. He wants no part in doing anything and doesn't want to talk about it with me, but he said he would be in the house with me, in a different room, while I do my thing incase I need help.

    My second friend won't read the report. He doesn't like reading. He thinks it's stupid, I told him (and the first one) If I had to be taken to the ER because I mess up, they can punch me in the face. He's now open to the idea, and will also be on hand incase I need people to support me should worst things go worst to make sure I'm okay.



    Friends are great. I haven't talked to anyone else about it. ^^"
  • I've got a magnet and an RFID, I'm very selective of who I tell about them. My theory is usually that they don't really need to know and I'm not needing any validation. It does spin people out a little when I check an alternator just by waving my hand over it though.
    I do have a bonus that a lot of my friends are tech savvy, they seem to have a higher understanding of the why once I tell them
  • I am extremely fortunate in that all my friends are extremely tech savvy. They are all fascinated by the idea of my implants, but most wouldn't go so far as to get them themselves.

    As far as laypeople go, I don't generally bring it up and most people only notice something odd when they see my unlock my phone with my implants or swipe them across a reader. These people are typically just very confused and ask me exactly just what happened. Upon explanation they are usually dumbfounded that this technology exists and is available for normal people to use. Their amazement turns to shock when they realize that not only am I able to unlock my phone with my implants, but also to save pictures to the device of anyone who attempts to unlock it without the chip. 

    I have also been able to give many people my contact info by simply asking them to set their android phones on my arm. That is a surefire way to blow them away.

    I currently have three chip implants. A rewritable 125kHz rfid tag placed in my wrist, and two xNT's, (one in my wrist, the second between my shoulder blades).

    I am actually very close to convincing my roommate to have an xNT implanted as our entire apartment is lit with Phillips Hue bulbs and I use my implant to control the lighting.
  • Ok I'm loving your set up and am very jealous. I'm about to get my new android phone so you are gonna need to share how you managed to get a photo taken of the person who tries to unlock it. Pretty please :) also what chip does the unlocking I'm assuming it's the xNT.
  • Maybe it is that I am an ambiverted sociable weirdo, but not only have I told just about anyone that I personally know, but have also shared my plan to get dual magnets implanted in my left hand on the second of march with many an acquaintance and random strangers.

    I don't know if it is my delivery, the fact that I can be overbearing, or that I have a tendency to seek out and easily find open minded people to open dialogue with but I have not found the response of people feeling that it is creepy or unmentionable in anyway to be a common one. Not that I haven't had it, because with the number of people I have told, I have had just about every response under the sun.

     I have a few friends basically waiting for my personal experience with my implants to feel okay about doing it themselves (as if the internet is not enough proof....people are weird), and several others very intrigued, though certainly not chomping at the bit to slice themselves open by any stretch of the imagination. 

    The most disappointing experience is people who are just rather unengaged. I would almost rather "ewww thats creepy you're weird..." to the unengaged response.

    I have come to expect the "WTF did you just say to me, and why would you do that?" from the most common of laypeople to my most tech savvy friends and when the subject comes up without fail (usually before I can even try to tell them why, again maybe delivery?).

    When this happens I usually open with "Mostly to be able to sense electromagnetic fields(I used to say feel, but that doesn't have the same reaction as when you say sense YMMV).

    If they have any sort of pensive or engaging reaction to that I move on to explain to them that I plan to integrate my implants into a haptic feedback system for applications ranging from my other passion, VR, to medical applications, along with a few idealistic or currently functional examples, and I have left most people thinking.

    A success I should say.

    As for the whole famdamily.... Let's just say they may not always approve of my decisions, but they accept that I have done my homework, and that I sure as hell am going to do what I am going to do. Their reactions have been almost as ranging as the public on a whole, and just about nothing surprises them from me anymore. I have been around too long for them to expect anything less, haha.

    I guess what I am getting at is that I am not stopping every person in the grocery store to shout I WILL BE A CYBORG, but I find the opportunity to open someone's mind to the idea of biohacking in general, from the sleep, diet and more common side of things all the way to the the I am going to be a cyborg side of things to be a very daily if not multiple times a day type of occurrence. 

    Who knows maybe my MO when it comes to engaging in discussion on the matter will change when the implants finally go in... Time shall tell.
  • edited February 2016
    After a lot of thought on if what I want to say is fair and justifiable, here we go. IMHO in civilization there are clicks of people with similar skills. Maybe not everyone likes everyone else, but they have that comment thread and therefore make a flock. Every so often another click comes along that threatens there flock. Like welderes to the a assembly line tech, it scares them and as the wheel would turn they feel threatened by this new flock. We aren't just another flock we are a wolf pack, we threaten (by testing the limits) all fields of science, technology, ethics, philosophy, and even who we are as humanity. People who do things like this will be accepted we do break molds but it takes time. While this could forever remain a underground thing that is only know to few who dare peer into the window, but who knows only time will tell. People here are really the last breath of a breed that is not extinct, but rapidly heading that way. People who seem just smart enough to not get themselves killed on the surface, however once you dig deeper you see they have a theory and a ideal (I would even go as far as to call it a constitution) that keeps them from getting ourselves or others killed. People like this think openly about and to the world around them. That has proven itself to be the greatest fear of humanity through out history. In the end we are all wolfs or sheep, there is no in the middle. If you are curious as to what I mean by the breaking of the mold look at the civil rights movement or even the dame American Revolution, those all had massive social impacts, none of them also happened overnight. Wow that sounded like some new age rant....

    To Long Didn't Read?
    If you care to much about what others think of you or how they look at you, your in the wrong place. Like I said above we are the last of a dying breed. You (as has anyone who has taken a sincere interest in any fringe culture) have taken at least the first step to escaping the mold and for that I congratulate you. Humanity has always wanted to move forward and it will, just slowly vary vary slowly. If you want the machine to move faster go find away to paint it in a positive light. Like saveing babies or altering the economy for the better, get creative.

    Sincerely,
    John Doe
  • wow that was very well put john doe. I tend to agrees with that.
  • I've never had a negative reaction to any implants or biohacking ideas based on the science or principles behind them, and I bring it up often to people of all different walks. What makes them run is when shit gets manifesto-y and it stops presenting itself as a line of scientific exploration and starts feeling like a cult.
  • My experience is that the more religious a person is, the more negative the reaction towards an implant.
  • I can test that lol. My aunt is extremely religious all I have to do is see her and talk about it.

    Ok but really I don't think it's all that 100% true because my neighbor is very religious and he know about mine and when I got it was very curious and wanted to know the basic info (why, where, how). I think it really depends on the person cause I know some devote atheist people who simple will not have it. I think it's more on the side of the persons own view of the body.

    You will probably find people who don't like piercings and tattoos won't like implants.
  • "My experience is that the more religious a person is, the more negative the reaction towards an implant"

    My experience so far is more along the lines of the more open minded someone is the more likely they are to respond with curiosity (Which is to be expected). I generally don't find many people reacting negatively, but that might be more to do with how I present myself. I notice a lot of people who have them also tend to have way out styles, like piercings and spacers in the ears, tattoos etc. Since I am essentially a salesman, I don't have any obvious oddities because it is generally detrimental to present anything other than a clean, professional aesthetic. 

    I think because I seem 'normal' people are already in a less judgemental mindset about me.

    I guess the implication is more that religious people tend to be less open minded, which I would probably agree with. However, talking to lots of people you soon realise that religious people don't have a monopoly on close mindedness. For example one of the people I work with essentially worships Apple and is an outspoken atheist who loves nothing more than ripping off religious people. They also happen to be one of the less intelligent people I know and very close minded (Did you know that no apple product has been successfully hacked? There is no virus for any apple product) 

    People are people, religious people are often born into a family that is religious and the only reason they have stayed with it is because they refuse to entertain the idea they could be wrong. My prediction is as more and more people are born into atheist families, who grow up believing evolution for no other reason than "Thats what my parents taught me" we will see the percentage of close minded atheists rising.


  • I agree 100% @griskard. I get more odd looks from the close minded people then religious and then of course the paranoid "gov is gonna track you!" My response is always "why do I care I have nothing to hide?" I also let them know it doesn't quite work that way.

    My normal appearance is that of either a guy that just crawled out from cave with a big beard or that of an preppy American Eagle guy who cares about his appearance.( yes I do dress both ways depending on what I'm doing and where I'm going).

    I have to say I get more surprised looks from the ragged look. The prep look get a more curious reaction. I think it's because they believe I know what I'm talking about when I look more cleaned up then when I look like a caveman.
  • Thats what I think. Hippy/Rebel/Different = This guy probably doesn't think about his decisions much, but Clean = This guy makes good decisions, therefore this decision is probably alright too.

    (Preempting some people, Im not saying that cleaned up people ARE smarter or different people are inferior, just that people will generally pre judge your decisions based on your appearance to them, thats why salesman usually try to look clean and ordinary)
  • When the whole government tracking discussion comes up, I always make sure to point out that they are probably already carrying a handy little device called a smartphone, which you know, is much easier to track than an NFC tag...
  • "When the whole government tracking discussion comes up, I always make sure to point out that they are probably already carrying a handy little device called a smartphone, which you know, is much easier to track than an NFC tag..."

    "Oh yeah but when it all goes bad and they want to round us up into FEMA execution camps I can just throw it away!"

    And I can just dig it out

    "But thats far more difficult than throwing away a phone..."

    Not for some people!
  • "Irrational fear and stress will kill you much faster than any government's plot."

    aaaaaand walk away. Stop talking to irrational people, because...irrational fear and stress will kill you much faster than any government plot. :P
  • Covertly tracking a phone? Cake.
    Covertly reading an NFC implant? Not cake.

    They're also not in standard locations, so you have to know where it is to use it at all.
  • I don't want to say you can't track someone with an RFID/NFC chip... But really, how far could you 'track' them from... Couldn't you see someone from further than you could detect them? C_c

    Anyone have ideas of approximate max ranges one would try to track your fellow grinder? :o
  • Someone here had a long range detector device planed out. I advised against it because that's how credit/debit card are moving....
  • IIRC, wasn't that long range scanner in the realm of like... 10 meter reading range, maximum? If that?

    Is there any reasonable means for someone to clearly observe someone with a RFID/NFC chip at a distance of 100m, better than they would be able to via sight?

    100m isn't that far in retrospect to tracking something. That's relatively tiny range for tracking a person. >~< I think most of us drive that far in a few seconds on a road.
  • If they start rounding people up having an rfid implant is going to be the least of ur worries. The things people freak out about are hilariously naive sometimes. They post everything on facebook and carry a phone with them but a chip that you can't read from more than a foot away is the problem? It's like the people who won't give their kids vaccines but will drive them all over the place in a car. Americans especially have zero ability to correctly assess risk, as proven by the fact that being tracked is the first thing thy think of rather than worry about an infection, which is far more likely.

    I have only had positive or bemused reactions from people I've told. But I do mostly only consort with anarchists and other radicals, so it's really not the weirdest thing most of them have seen, or done in many cases.
  • @Cathasach

    We aren't ALL ignorant Americans. v-v Not that most of my peers don't embarrass me, though. But there are some of us who aren't... You know...
  • The furthest an rfid has been read is 1500 feet, but let's all note that these long range readings all require that the reader already know where the chip is located, so they would be completely useless as a way to track individuals since they'd have to know where you are. And instead of pulling it out if you were being tracked you could just wear an RF shielded glove. You can get them for like $30 bucks from woo sites.
  • About reading range. One has to differ between passive and active rfid tags.
    First of all most tags we usually deal with are passive ones. Means you have to supply them with energy to even work. In order to do that you need to transport energy using electromagnetic waves. As high frequencies can transport more energy given a limited field strength you get more reading range with those.

    The antenna sizes are the other big factor as a small antenna obviously allows you to gather less energy from the EM-fields.

    Some very rough numbers:
    125kHz usually works in the range of < 20cm. If you use really big tag antennas you can get single-digit meter range. To get further you have to put a lot of effort into it.
    13.56MHz (NFC/Mifare etc). usual operating ranges is a bit higher than the 125kHz, still limited to lower single-digit meters unless you pull some tricks. With good antennas and a lot of transmit power you may be able to get a bit further but nothing fancy yet.
    Then there are UHF tags which operate around 900MHz. Those are more interesting as the wavelangs allows you to build more fancy antennas. The higher energy from the increased frequency can boost your range into something like 15 meters and more. Wouldn't bet my money on read-performance beyond 50m tho.

    Then there are active tags. They require an external energy source such as a battery and usually operate at high frequencies. Those are not much different from regular radio communication. Think of wifi, bluetooth, etc. those are the 1500 feet class ( or 500m for most of the world). Given optimal conditions 500m is not even the limit here, but for most practical uses this is a good number. Those sort of tags (or simmilar tech) is often found in tires on cars. Those send information about the tire air pressure to the car. Needless to say their security is horrible and the signal radiates quite far. Equipment to track those tire-tags is pretty cheap and can be used to track a car along a road given you have readers every few hundred meters.

    So yeah. The whole tracking thing is a bit silly. Cellphones, surveillance cameras in public places, traffic cameras scanning license plates, credit cards, payback points programs in shops, tire pressure sensors in cars, metadata collection by governments, etc etc etc. and people get worked up about a tiny rfid tag with no critical information with a practical reading range of <5cm.
  • BUT THEY C.A.N. TRACK YOU! :V

    Wake up sheeple...



    Lol sorry. >3< It's so trivial.
  • I live in a region where the norm seems to be to fear technology, appeal to nature and attack things one doesn't understand.  There is a small tech culture here with promise to grow - so I'm focused on outreach in my area.  
  • My mom doesn't understand tattoos, piercings other than mainstream lobe piercings, or any sort of body mod. Not even dyed hair. She definitely does not understand the implants. Why I even tell her, I don't know. I'm hoping to convince her she needs to live "dangerously" and dye her hair neon purple for her 70th birthday next year. 

    I told my classmates about my newest RFID implant at the beginning of summer. Most kind of gave me a O.o look. One told me on Wednesday that she read reports of "hackers" getting into people's implants and controlling them or turning off their pacemakers and she was worried about me. I explained that this is not that kind of implant. She was very relieved that I wouldn't become a zombie.
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