Hise 1

Kincade Hise

Dr. Shires

Eng.1213.01

12/9/2022

Biohacking: Future or Failure?

Biohacking is any form of betterment to a human body. Biohacking takes innumerable

forms that are present in everyday life. Examples of biohacking can include medical treatments

like artificial limbs and Tylenol. It all depends on one’s classification system. There are dozens

of distinct types of biohackers, from people who call themselves grinders to research scientists

that spend their days in labs doing life-saving work. I and hundreds of others like myself have

decided that biohacking is not only something that should be legal but it is also a crucial next

step in human adaptation.

The easiest way to start biohacking is by simply controlling diet and exercise. One way

people modify their diet is with something called nutrigenomics. Nutrigenomics studies diet

concerning a person’s genetic code. Everyone digests and uses certain foods better or worse than

others. Whether or not a person can digest milk is determined by a gene that codes for lactase, an

enzyme that breaks down the lactose found in mammalian milk. Genetic testing to determine if a

person can or should have lactose in their diet is an excellent example of nutrigenomics. Exercise

has been proven countless times to affect most humans positively. Creating an exercise plan

specifically for one person based on DNA could prove beneficial (IIN).

Chemotherapy is also a branch of research that thousands of biohackers explore. Despite

widespread belief, chemotherapy is not just for cancer patients; chemotherapy uses any chemical

to reduce or eliminate disease. Penicillin is one of the most widely used chemotherapeutic drugs
 Hise 2

in existence. More hardcore biohackers spend considerable time and effort researching and

procuring chemicals that they believe will make them healthier and live longer. Thousands of

hackers take many pills daily to stay biologically young (Sigal).

Potentially hundreds of these drugs have been assessed and proven beneficial by

scientists and approved by organizations like the FDA. However, many are much too expensive

to buy because selfish businesspeople try to profit from the desperate (Marr). The manufacturing

cost for one vial of insulin is five dollars, but it can cost over five hundred dollars to purchase.

This is because the FDA has cleared only three companies worldwide to sell insulin in the U.S.,

and they have consistently raised prices to match their competitors. Insulin is simple to make, but

government laws need to go through a hard reset. Insulin is created from yeast with the insulin

production gene inserted into their genome. This is possible in high school-level laboratories. It

is too difficult for hundreds of scientific teams to receive funding or approval from the

government to perform life-saving science. The systems we have in place are hundreds of years

old and need an immediate rejuvenation.

Millions of people desire to be cyborgs and live with technology, coinciding with their

organic bodies. These hackers call themselves grinders. Grinders are bleeding-edge enthusiasts

who put their safety on the line in return for a more cybernetic future. Thousands of biohackers

implant themselves with homemade or unregulated implants designed to fulfill a need. However,

there have been a few implants that are just for flash and do not necessarily serve a meaningful

purpose. Thousands of hackers implant NFC or near-field communication chips into their hands

and surrounding tissue. NFCs can interact with technology wirelessly and run programs or code

on them. Individual chips open specific websites on a person’s phone when it is close to them

and have an unlimited number of similar functions. Hundreds of people retrofit their locks to
 Hise 3

respond to their chips and unlock them safely and securely. This is becoming increasingly

popular in the workplace for security reasons. There is a man who designed a product called

pegleg, an open-source Wi-Fi and storage space device implanted into his leg. This means that

anybody with a device connected to Wi-Fi could walk up to this man and store and retrieve data

in a drive under his skin. Rich Lee, a world renowned grinder and inventor, currently has five

remarkably interesting implants that serve beneficial needs. He has two magnets around his

middle ear that he rigged to a depth sensor; the magnets vibrate and send sound through his

middle ear to his eardrum in response to how far something is from him. Lee can benefit from

his sonar tech because he is going blind. Lee also has a subdermal thermometer that interacts

with his phone and gives him his constant bodily temperature. Along with this, Lee has two NFC

chips implanted into his hands.

There are typically four types of acknowledged cyborgs for different uses. The first

mention of real cyborgs came in the sixties in the form of ideas related to advancing human

strength exclusively for space exploration (Pio-Lopez). The second common form of cyborgs are

people with artificial hips used to positively impact a person’s health. The third form of cyborgs

are people with superfluous modifications that only add flavor to life. The last typical form of a

cyborg is one with machines and is a perfect form of a man with a machine (Pio-Lopez). The

most recent kind of cyborg has no machine at all. I am speaking of a Biocyborg. A Biocyborg is

simply another form of health. Biocyborgs will have artificial hips made from their own cloned

cells and not titanium ones that eventually fail. A child with an unfortunate genetic illness that

has been removed will also be a Biocyborg. As I grow older, I hope to see unlimited growth in

the cybernetic and biocybernetics industries.

As discussed in my last essay, several ailments of humanity, like depression, addiction,

and even domestic abuse, can be linked to specific genes. Scientists could theoretically purge all

these disorders and more from the human population. Intelligence is also linked to genetic

material. The global IQ could be raised significantly in merely a few generations because of

genetic modification tools and biohackers working in harmony with scientists. These hyper-

intelligent people to come will surely advance the species into another plain of existence.

Some people cling to the notion that altering a person’s mind is playing God and that

doing so is morally wrong. If God is good, acting like him cannot be wrong. If God meant that

we were created in his image, that means parts of him are in us and naturally will act like him. If

God is dead, then we will fill much-needed shoes. Why bother with the moral objections to

biohacking if God was never real? If God is an idea created by a ruling class to keep them in

line, then how could acting like a fictional creature be wrong, especially when trying to do good

(Szewczyk)?

C.R.I.S.P.R. is an acronym that stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short

Palindromic Repeats. C.R.I.S.P.R. is a protein found in 90% of Archaea and 50% of bacteria that

identifies and modifies DNA (Garcia-Robledo). C.R.I.S.P.R. is used regularly in single-celled

organisms as a form of viral immunity. Once a bacterium is infected with a virus, it keeps a bit of

its DNA and impregnates it inside a C.R.I.S.P.R. protein. C.R.I.S.P.R. scans the genome for

DNA matching the DNA inside the protein, and once it finds a matching gene, C.R.I.S.P.R.

replaces the gene with another one. C.R.I.S.P.R. can be programmed to scan and replace any

gene a scientist wants. This can all be done cheaply and simply from almost any lab.

Jo Zayner has become a poster boy for the genetic side of biohacking. They have an

alternative look and a do-it-yourself attitude that embodies the movement. Zayner and I have
 Hise 5

independently modified bacteria with part of a jellyfish’s genome to make the bacteria

bioluminescent. This, however, is the limit of my biohacking career, but Zayner has made quite a

splash in the biohacking pool. Zayner received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in

biophysics, so they are deeply knowledgeable about the subject. Zayner has been known to

modify their DNA and even went as far as to publicly inject C.R.I.S.P.R. into their body in front

of a live audience to prove that gene editing is safe if done correctly. Zayner has replaced their

gastrointestinal microbiome with a healthier one from a donor. Genetic sequencing has

determined that both the donor and Zayner genetically have almost identical DNA in their stool.

Zayner had a history of GI issues before the hack, and they reported little to no residual stomach

issues after the transplant.

I have a personal plan to biohack myself to glow in the dark. The first step to most

biohacks is to procure the proper knowledge and supplies. Once all the necessary equipment has

been obtained, I would collect lots of bacteria from several places around my body. I will then

plate and modify the bacteria with a gene taken from jellyfish that allows organisms to glow in

the dark. Once the specimens have been modified, I will inoculate several petri dishes and

nutrient broths with my skin's normal microbiota. Once I have a large cache of glowing

microbes, I will start eliminating all bacteria from my skin and things that interact with my skin

every day, like my clothes. Once my surroundings are sufficiently cleaned, I will cover myself

and a small number of my things in glowing bacteria. I will apply more cells over a few days or

until I feel they have been sufficiently incorporated. If all goes well, I should grow a dull green at

the end of the experiment (Ronald).

Genetic hacking, like the experiments that Zayner does, is for the good of the world and

should be more accessible. Genetic disorders like Tay Sachs, caused by the mutation of one base
 Hise 6

pair in a specific gene, should not exist. With the tool C.R.I.S.P.R., which can scan and insert or

remove genes within a host, almost any genetic disorder could be no more. Unfortunately, all of

this is still theoretical. However, the primary thing stopping us from advancing with our studies

is the need for more funding and the fact that science this delicate must go slowly in the

academic world. Furthermore, additional funding is cut because some people are hesitant

towards gene editing and say it is “playing God.” Genetic modification can do a tremendous

amount of good if people learn how to use the technology safely and how they can apply it to

themselves. People could modify their intestines in ways that aid in the digestion and utilization

of the food we eat. The annihilation of all genetic diseases could be possible. According to Vox,

a research laboratory that studies issues within living organisms discovered that a big reason we

age is imperfections in the mitochondria. They said they could increase mice’s life by thirty

percent by fixing their inherited mitochondria. Imagine a world where people could easily live

thirty percent longer while maintaining a high quality of life. Additionally, mitochondrial DNA

is taken directly and exclusively from the mother, so a genetically modified woman’s baby

would not have to undergo any mitochondrial editing. This world cannot come to fruition if

people do not have access to C.R.I.S.P.R.

How do I know all of this? All the information here was handed to me freely by people

like Lee and Zayner, who are doing what they do best, not for profit but for the betterment of

society. Biohackers believe that information should be free and accessible, making them

different from others. Biohackers do not hoard information or processes like pharmaceutical

companies to turn a profit. Biohackers are a small, tight-knit collection of clandestine researchers

giving their lives to better their knowledge and societies. I and millions like myself

wholeheartedly know that biohacking is the most important thing we will ever do.
 Hise 7

In summary, biology is life. Life is imperfect. Perfecting life should be the ultimate goal.

With enough dedication and support, life will be perfect. Perfect, however, is not a definite thing.

Perfect is a changing state. Perfection will never genuinely happen but is always somehow at our

fingertips.
 Hise 8

Works Cited

Bailey, Ronald. “Adventures in Home Biohacking.” Reason, vol. 50, no. 3, July 2018, pp. 42–

44. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.se.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=129687975&site=ehost-live.

Garcia-Robledo, Juan Esteban, et al. “CRISPR/Cas: From Adaptive Immune System in

Prokaryotes to Therapeutic Weapon against Immune-Related Diseases: CRISPR/Cas9

Offers a Simple and Inexpensive Method for Disease Modeling, Genetic Screening, and

Potentially for Disease Therapy.” International Reviews of Immunology, vol. 39, no. 1,

Jan. 2020, pp. 11–20. EBSCOhost,

https://doi-org.ezproxy.se.edu/10.1080/08830185.2019.1677645.

Integrative Nutrition, IIN journalist. “Biohacking: Everything You Need to Know.” Institute for

Integrative Nutrition, Integrative Nutrition, 28 July 2021,

www.integrativenutrition.com/blog/biohacking.

Marr, Bernard. “What's Biohacking? All You Need to Know about the Latest Health Craze.”

Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 12 Oct. 2022,

www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2021/02/26/whats-biohacking-all-you-need-to-know-

about-the-latest-health-craze/?sh=6b2c24ea5d76.

Pio-Lopez, Léo. “The Rise of the Biocyborg: Synthetic Biology, Artificial Chimerism and

Human Enhancement.” New Genetics & Society, vol. 40, no. 4, Dec. 2021, pp. 599–

619. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.se.edu/10.1080/14636778.2021.2007064.

Robbins, Tony. “What Is Biohacking and How Does It Work?: Tony Robbins.”

Tonyrobbins.com, 23 July 2022, www.tonyrobbins.com/health-vitality/biohacking-for-

beginners/.
 Hise 9

Sigal,Samuel. “How Biohackers Are Trying to Upgrade Their Brains, Their Bodies - and Human

Nature.” Vox, Vox, 25 June 2019,

www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/6/25/18682583/biohacking-transhumanism-human-

augmentation-genetic-engineering-crispr.

Szewczyk, Matylda. “On Gods, Pixies and Humans: Biohacking and the Genetic

Imaginary.” Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research, vol. 20, no. 1/2, July

2022, pp. 125–39. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.se.edu/10.1386/tear_00086_1.