On the ethics of experimentation

What a lazy summer!

In the past four weeks, I’ve done nearly nothing, as I transitioned from Boston to London, where I’m now living full-time, funemployed.

However, I have had one particularly good piece published during my lazy haze.

WBUR’s Cognoscenti column took a story about my magnet implant adventure and grinder culture in general, and I’ve particularly enjoyed the bewildered comments below the piece, as well as across social media. People are SO MEAN when they don’t understand wtf you’re talking about.

Still, IMHO it’s totally worth a glance, because although others have written about magnet implants, and this isn’t really new by any means, I’m coming at it from the ethical and regulatory angle.

Magnet (and other) implants should be legal, done by doctors, and they should be monitored, just like any other medical-grade body augmentation.

What I didn’t really get into here is the need for some kind of database (beyond bodyhack.me forums) about the whole implantation process, that mimics the kind of reporting a patient in a clinical trial might be obligated to make. This is obviously, a wildly optimistic idea, but I think it’s absolutely necessary.

This week it was announced that Zachary Quinto would be starring in a new show about biohacking… It’s officially going mainstream now, and before thousands of teenagers start slicing themselves open, the leading minds in the grinder movement should get organized.

I know, I know… Trying to get cyborg anarchists to agree on anything is like herding cats. But hopefully this can happen at some point, before something worse than my painful rejection happens to someone else.

WBUR: I Had A Magnet Implanted In My Finger

Originally published at itslexikon1.tumblr.com.