Biohacking
How biohackers are trying to upgrade their brains, their bodies — and human nature.
9 questions about biohacking you were too embarrassed to ask.
Biohacking — also known as DIY biology — is an extremely broad and amorphous term that can cover a huge range of activities from performing science experiments on yeast or other organisms, to tracking your own sleep and diet, to changing your own biology by pumping a younger person’s blood into your veins in the hope that it’ll fight aging.
As biohacking starts to appear more often in headlines — and, recently, in a fascinating Netflix series called Unnatural Selection — it’s worth getting clear on some of the fundamentals. Here are nine questions that can help you make sense of biohacking.
- First of all, what exactly is biohacking? What are some common examples of it?
- Why are people doing this? What drives someone to biohack themselves?
- How different is biohacking from traditional medicine? What makes something “count” as a biohacking pursuit?
- So how much of this is backed by scientific research?
- This all sounds like it can be taken to extremes. What are the most dangerous types of biohacking being tried?
- Are all these biohacking pursuits legal?
- One of the more ambitious types of biohacking is life extension, the attempt to live longer or even cheat death entirely. What are the physical limits of life extension?
- Biohackers also include people who engage in DIY science without experimenting on themselves. What’s that form of biohacking like?
- At its most extreme, biohacking can fundamentally alter human nature. Should we be worried?
Read the article, here.