The Biohacking Revolution Goes Mainstream--Won't Be Long Now . . .

Tag implants have gone mainstream. Once the object of Grinders--a term that refers to biohackers, transhumanists, and techno-progressives--tag implants are now finding their way into mainstream media coverage.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled When Information Storage Gets Under Your Skin states that there are approximately 50,000 people in the world--indeed a growing number--with skin implant RFID tags. It also mentions the body hacker movement--a movement that's been featured in publications considered fringe--not the pinstriped button-downed WSJ.

Indeed the uses are myriad: storing personal data, storing phone numbers and contacts, being able to make phone calls, open doors, waltz through airline security.

But there are also serious ethical and security issues. What if you're hacked? Surely just because you have an implant doesn't make you immune to being hacked. There is also the issue of people with cognitive impairments, such as Alzheimers, having their important personal data stored on their body, but without their ability to consent to the process in the first place.

What I find very interesting is that biohacking, transhumanism, and other post-human movements are now going mainstream. Once a sci-fi fetish, it is now gaining notoriety and acceptance from conventional media. That means more people will be adopting the technology, which will indeed lead to an emergence of biohackers and transhumanists.

But this is where it's all going anyway right? As if the ability to text and tweet and buy concert tickets and open doors and store all kinds of data would remain on a 'device' external to the body. It's about the external becoming internal; about tools becoming appendages; it's about modifying the human body to become requisite with the demands of technology. And WSJ's coverage of biohacking is one important step on the way to the fringe becoming conventional.

It won't take long. Give us five years and the number of biohackers worldwide will grow by an order of magnitude.