The quest for immortality has been a theme in many novels, myths, movies, and TV series. Immortality has been an object of desire for real people from the past, too. Genghis Khan, in his old age, wanted to know how to gain immortality. The Chinese drank mercury, thinking that this would make them live forever.
We might not be able to achieve immortality in this life, but that doesn’t mean that we’re giving up on looking for ways to improve our physical body, which is called biohacking.
As an umbrella term, biohacking is broad and covers many people and behaviours. At its most simple, biohacking just means do-it-yourself experimental biology to enhance health. In practice, it can mean using an app to track your sleep patterns, or taking supplements, all the way to subjecting yourself to untested operations.
Zoltan Istvan, a 2020 Republican running for the presidency, is an example of a biohacker. He calls himself a “transhumanist”.
“As a transhumanist,” explains Istvan, “I’m someone that wants to merge my body with machine parts. I want to become a cyborg to become a more complete, stronger, and perfect living entity.”
While Istvan can be considered an extreme biohacker, there are people like Geoffrey Woo, the co-founder and CEO of HVMN (health via modern nutrition) who can be considered to be on the other side of the spectrum.
For Woo, biohacking isn’t just a hobby but a value system: “I think it’s worthwhile to encourage people to have self-responsibility and agency over their own health and their own lives.
More about this over at the South China Morning Post.
(Image Credit: EliasSch/ Pixabay)