hello everybody uh my name is Karen and
welcome to love hackers and robots uh
this is my incredibly self-indulgent
talk and love letter to the biohacking
community so uh this is me I am a
physical security pentester in my day
job and for fun I am also one of the
village leads for the physical security
village where in uh the mirac um little
area by the vendors there uh graphic
design is my passion I like making
things including good trouble and uh
this is my second time speaking at
hope so let's get into it and talk about
what biohacking is so if you look up on
Google what biohacking is it says the
activity of exploiting genetic material
experimentally without regard to
accepted ethical standards and or for
criminal purposes uh rude uh thank you
uh and if you go down to the results you
start getting things about incremental
changes to your bod's and lifestyle and
supplements and things about vitamins
and minerals and people trying to sell
you things uh that's a little confusing
and that's not what I'm talking about uh
for the purposes of this talk I going to
be talking about body augmentation
intentionally and experimentation of
that sort out of interest to try to
improve your own life or just why not
out of full interest and then the
community that's built itself around
that idea you'll see other terms like
grinding and whatnot which some people
in the community prefer to refer to
things like augmentation and
experimentation outside of like the
corporate definition of
biohacking um but it's still a bit of a
niche term so I'm going to be using the
word biohacking to kind of cover this
for today so you're a bi hacker uh kind
of uh I'm mostly just an idiot that got
a chip put in her hand uh and I really
can't compare to the really cool people
in the community that do research and
design their own things but I'll be
gushing about that later
uh also uh did I say chip in my hand yes
I did I got this about a year ago so I'm
coming up on my first anniversary of
being a cyborg uh real quick FAQ for
people that are not familiar with uh
implants uh did it hurt to put in a bit
does it hurt now no how did you put it
in big needle is it permanent if I'm
lucky is it safe mostly uh why did you
do it why not uh what does it do it is a
RFID and NFC chip I'll talk a bit more
about that in a bit do you have trouble
at the airport yes but that's completely
unrelated to the chip in my hand can you
go through an MRI yes do you plan to get
more absolutely it is the coolest thing
I've ever
done uh so people a lot of the time have
questions about safety it's not FDA
approved and I am accepting all risks by
getting this implanted into my body but
that being said uh this implant is body
safe glass a lot of independent people
have like looked into it have been
working on this kind of thing for years
uh the one that I have it is an X Series
it's existed for like 11 years and
literally last week was the first
recorded incident of them ever having
been broken so here's the post on the
dangerous things Forum July 8th uh we
have the first recorded instance of an
next series being shattered uh this
person who got this chip in their hand
shattered actually got uh stepped on by
a horse I think and just like you know
kind of really mess up their hand but
also their in so uh honestly it is
impressive and an achievement to be the
first one to Break one of
these uh so let's get into my own
implant Adventure uh in about 2019 I had
first started hearing about RFID
implants and I thought that is the
singular coolest thing I had ever heard
of uh a few years later in 2022 I was
going around Defcon and I met this
amazing person doing a main track talk
and she had just a ton of implants all
up and down her arm all over her body
and I was just so enamored with how cool
she was uh and she does Remain
objectively the coolest person I've ever
met and then about a year ago I was
offered a chance to get implanted and I
jumped at the opportunity I did not
hesitate I did not need to think about
it I had thought about it long
enough so here's me getting my implant
put in uh circled in red there is uh as
I described earlier the biggest needle
I've ever seen in my life and then the
lovely gentleman that is giving me my my
implant that's cix he's very very cool
and a very experienced person in the uh
implanted biohacking
Community uh so this is the chip that I
got put into my hand oh this is the chip
that I got put into my hand there is an
RFID chip and an NFC chip oh my gosh it
is okay you okay Tech yes okay uh but
yeah so this is what it looks like there
is the big needle that they use to put
it into your hand and it's about a
cimeter and a half long in my hand uh
but it's very cool it has those two
chips so I can put two different things
onto this
implant so what exactly does it do uh
well if you've ever seen little little
fobs like these or and or little NFC
stickers like this it's like if you took
both of those
things made it real small shoved it into
a glass capsule and then shoved it into
my hand so if you know anything about
NFC or RFID it works EX exactly the same
way so I can use it to open my business
contact info or a Spotify playlist or
Rick Roll my friends using the uh NFC
chip uh or I can use the RFID to unlock
my apartment I also use it to impress
people at parties and to greatly
disappoint my
[Music]
parents so yeah so here I am reading
with my phone the NFC chip and I just
have it open up to the uh physical
security Village website but yeah it's
it's pretty easy to work with it's very
like intuitive to use if you know a
little bit about the Technologies behind
it oh don't do
that uh and then this is a video of me
unlocking my apartment door with the
RFID chip I just hold it right up there
and it lets me into my apartment this
has come in handy more than one time
because I am a terribly forgetful person
that locks herself out of her apartment
all the time so uh this has proven more
than the utility of it and more than
worth the pain of getting it put
in uh how do you program it uh just like
any RFID tag or any NFC little um
sticker you can use a flipper Pro smart
phone uh literally any way that you're
able to program one of these chips you
can use that method as long as the uh
signal is strong enough to get through
your
flesh so this is what I use to program
the NFC it's just NFC tools on my phone
and it's easy as that to uh write onto
it so very intuitive uh moving on I want
to talk about some of the really cool
people that I've met uh these are my top
favorite cool people uh so me e windall
was the person that I met at Defcon with
all the implants uh she has designed her
own implants it is so cool and she
Remains the coolest person I've ever met
uh cix the person I mentioned earlier
that put the chip into my hand he he's
very well known within the biohacking
community and has done a lot of really
cool things as well uh and then
throughout the past year I've been lucky
enough to meet a lot of other people
with implants or RFID Rings or things of
that variety and literally every single
time I'm sitting there and I hear the
word chip RFID or dangerous things I
literally perk up like a dog uh I keep
meeting really really lovely cool people
and I am so very fortunate to be able to
go around to all these different hacker
conferences and meet these really neat
people that have the same interest as
me uh dangerous things.com so this is a
really really cool website they sell
implants and there's also a forum where
uh I really like to lurk and hang out
there's other biohacking forums as well
but I like dangerous things the
community is really nice and it's my
favorite uh so in August 2023 when I
first got my implant uh this was my
first post as is most people's first
post UND dangerous things uh I am no
better than any man but everyone was
very very nice about it uh people were
congratulating me they were putting me
at ease about my concerns they were just
all super nice and super lovely uh so it
really helped me feel more welcomed in
that community and more like I wanted to
spend more time
there so you know if you go on to the
website at any point the forums are just
full of really really cool things uh for
for example this one this thread show
off your x-rays it's literally people
that have gotten implants and then got
x-rays done and just posted them for
people to see uh these are two really
really cool images from the forums with
their usernames attached there check
them out they are so cool uh they are so
cool in fact I almost want to
accidentally injure my hand just to
check on things and make sure
everything's okay just to get the cool
x-rays to put onto the forums to show
off to everyone else
I won't but I've considered it but I
won't but I've considered it uh
throughout the forums there's all sorts
of really cool projects that people are
working on uh there's a whole category
about the projects that people are doing
uh and really that's kind of the basis
of what the biohacking community focuses
on it's all of these independent
projects and then asking each other for
advice and helping each other out and
giving each other guidance and pointing
them in the right direction so that
people can keep making crazy science
fiction kind of things but in
reality so this is one that I keep
thinking about I can't stop thinking
about is this glow-in-the-dark ink
project there's a couple different Forum
users that have been working on this uh
but it's super cool so this isn't just
UV Inc which does exist right now but
actual glow-in-the-dark will remain
luminescent after you turn the UV light
off kind of tattoo uh it is so
interesting and I am very very very very
very
tempted uh this is another project that
someone else is working on a little
implanted display uh this one's a bit of
a bigger project but you know this forum
user saw this little eaper flexible
thing and thought how possible is it to
make this body safe and put it under
your skin and they just started posting
on the forums and people have really
been talking about it and contributing
and whatnot uh you can see in this image
here people had suggested that he put it
under a l of chicken skin just to see
what that would look like and how well
the eaper would display on that uh but
he didn't have chicken so he used ham
and so you know it was a really good
opportunity to get input from everyone
else in the community people that know
more about implantables and how visible
things are under the skin and ways to
kind of visualize that for the person
that wants to create this cool
thing of course um dangerous things
offers custom work so if you have some
cool tree you want to try to get into
your body they can turn it into a body
safe Flex or they can try to turn it
into a body safe Flex um and it's very
very cool and I would also love to do
this one day but it's definitely worth
checking out uh there also exists other
pre-made existing implants that are
really interesting and cool uh they are
a little bit more invasive to install so
some of these you need to kind of
scalpel your way in a little bit more as
opposed to the big needle that uh I got
my implant via uh but I do want to get
some of these eventually you know you've
you might have heard about like sensing
magnets and things like that where
people put a magnet in their finger and
can feel like microwaves and power going
through the outlets and things uh I
think that's super cool I'd love to get
one one day uh there's those bigger Flex
series implants that I was talking about
that can have little LEDs that light up
under your skin um oh man I want them so
bad uh but yeah so I you know it's a lot
of really cool projects that are
existing and like finished and being
worked on at all times and it's just
really cool um I'd also be remiss if I
didn't mention grindfest which is this
huge well not huge but you know big-ish
no not big-ish uh in someone's house a
several day Meetup in California where
biohackers and grinders and everyone
just like hang out and they work on
things and they talk about their
projects and they do little mini
hackathons and they have an electric
knife fight and everything's just really
crazy and fun and cool um it's run by
augmentation Limitless which are the
really cool people that put my implant
into my hand uh so you know if you guys
are interested in checking out grindfest
uh there's their website it'll redirect
to the augmentation Limitless website um
but you know they have a lot of very
cool things on there uh there have been
like media that have gone to grindfest
to report on it and be like oh these are
cool things that people are working on
so you know it's it's very very cool
things run by very cool
people uh and then I should I guess
touch on some crazy people in
misinformation uh mostly just for you
guys' entertainment uh so people tell me
often about the mark of the beast uh
according to Wikipedia The Mark of the
Beast is in their right hand or in their
forehead uh so uh crap uh There Goes My
Celestial plans uh oh no I should have
gotten it in my left hand oops uh you
also get really fun emails that pop up
from time to time about um the number
666 and Joe Biden and uh Obama asking
you to chip in uh as part of a new world
order so all sorts of fun and exciting
um email content for people to discover
um you know you also get posts like this
on the forums uh where some people are
like hey I got an implant and my family
is going to think that I am the devil
uh so you know there's a lot of things
around that and a lot of misinformation
about that we also have a lot of people
that will post on the dangerous things
forums about mind reading and stalking
and being monitored in fact it got so
bad that they had to quarantine all of
those posts into a single thread and so
every time someone posts a new Thread
about being watched or being followed or
getting a chip put into their hand while
they sleep it all gets moved into this
thread to keep track of everything uh it
has 1.6 th000 replies which is kind of
wild uh and it's full of exciting
content like this uh I'm trying to get
information on microchips that are
implanted under my skin wrongfully
illegally and yes it's really been
done uh you get something like this
where people are saying they can feel it
and it's undetectable to scanners but I
know it's there and it makes you hear
voices that make you go crazy and turn
you into a mass killer uh you get ones
like this where um behind my right ear a
microchip was implanted without my
consent the person responsible for this
is Paul l goldpan a 33 degree Freemason
Shriner um you also get things like this
where people are publishing papers about
human microchips and things like that
and it's use in human trafficking uh if
you look over here in the little Parts
circled in red if you know anything
about RFID chips and anything about you
know uh Lost Pet tracking ships and
things they don't track they don't have
GPS functionality if someone were to
implant like a GPS tracker it would be
way bigger than any kind of implant that
most people would barely notice um so
you know you get a lot of misinformation
out there by people that sound really
smart but don't really know what they're
talking
about uh generally to clarify and to
alleviate concerns uh RFID chips can't
track your location uh if you own a pet
you would know this uh that chips and
microchip pets can only identify the pet
once it's found it can't locate your pet
uh there's no secret hidden implants
that make you hear secret voices that
drive you crazy uh Bill Gates and the
government are not interested in
shipping you especially when you already
carry your phone around 24/7 and you're
not a huge Person of Interest to the
government which uh most people are not
and uh bonus and I rely on this one a
lot if the techn ology existed to put a
chip into your body via vaccines the
biohackers would have had a field day
and gone crazy with it I would have so
many in my arms intentionally so it's
not a
thing uh so General takeaways as I try
to kind of wrap up and get into kind of
the questions and answers period is uh
you know that thing that they say where
on when you're on your deathbed you only
regret doing things that you didn't do
and not the things you did do that I
really do wish I had gotten my implant
way earlier I had been thinking about it
for you know four or five years before I
finally went and did it and it has been
so fun and it's really opened me up to
this wonderful community that I've been
able to meet a lot of really interesting
and cool people uh I really love not
getting locked out of my building I
never run into this problem anymore and
that in and of itself was worth the
recovery from getting this implanted uh
mom if you are watching this this entire
presentation is fiction I have no no
body modifications and you can't prove
anything uh and if uh I've been working
for the New World Order they owe me a
lot of money if any of you know anybody
that works for them tell them I'm
waiting on my
check uh so now I'm just going to jump
into questions uh you know this was a
very general overview for people that
don't really have any information or
knowledge about biohacking so um if you
are a regular in any of the biohacking
forums please don't bully me I'm trying
my best I'm just the Bab
um and to all of these people here that
I've mentioned thank you for all of the
love um I've been very very lucky to
feel so comfortable in this community
that I just wanted to talk forever about
them in front of a crowd of people uh so
I can take questions now thank you guys
so
[Applause]
much very nice um so I was curious if
you're I'm sure I could read about this
on the forums but um people cloning like
if you're asleep or like at a party or
something somebody clones
your hotel key or I mean your apartment
I mean you know I guess it's possible if
like the person one knows that you have
a chip there two knows what information
you have on it three has the technology
in well we all know now well yeah I mean
if I fell asleep here I would be at risk
if I'm at a random party falling asleep
that is you know less of a risk um I
have other friends with implants and I
have considered on more than one
occasion to overwrite their NFC to
something stupid um so that the next
time they try to show it off to someone
they read it and it just opens something
ridiculous that was my next question so
what about somebody like overriding
yours or yeah so you know I think it's
definitely something that I've
considered doing to prank my friends and
whatnot there are some features that you
can use to kind of you know make it so
that it's a little bit more challenging
for them to get um at your implant but
you know generally because it's such
like a niche community of people with
that interest it's not a risk unless you
are in a group of friends that also have
implants so got
it hi uh I talked to someone once who
had a magnet uh implanted in their hand
and uh over time she said that the uh it
started to interact with her nervous
system so she could actually sense
magnetic fields yeah uh do you know
anyone who's been involved with
biohacking where they've had things that
were interacting with their nervous
system so that they actually changed
their relationship to their senses oh
yeah so that's a really big popular
thing if I go back
over there it is so right here this is
the Titan sensing biomagnet off of
dangerous things uh it's been something
that people have worked on for a very
long time and like are really excited
about generally putting magnets into the
flesh it is a bit of like a difficult
challenge cuz it needs to be a little
bit bulky in order to give that like
different new sense uh but you can use
it once it's implanted and healed to
like feel microwaves and feel like the
power surging through outlets and all
sorts of like really cool things like
that I'd love to get one at some point
um yeah so it's definitely something
that people have and is out there and
that people really enjoy using uh I also
know of people that have gotten magnets
put into right here on their ear and
that lets them essentially use
headphones without putting on headphones
uh there's a there's a lot of really
really cool things that people do and
are interested in uh I actually started
doing like a deep dive into biohacking
because I heard about someone with a
magnet in their finger and I was like I
want to know more about that and that it
was just a rabbit hole from there
what does the uh what is the cost like
for um well I guess it would be cost and
Recovery sorry could you repeat that uh
cost for something like an imp uh like
the Imp cost yeah as well as what is the
recovery like yeah so you know the cost
of the implant itself it varies so these
this magnet here is around $300 uh the
next that I have is around $100 is
dollars for the implant itself and then
on top of that would be the cost of of
installations so it depends on what body
modder or piercer that you're talking
with that's first of all willing to put
one into you um but yeah so you know
that amount varies as well I also have
heard of people that will have like
their vet tech friends put it in for
them and so that cost them nothing you
know uh a lot of biohackers are an
ingenious Bunch that will figure out how
to make de uh there's also a lot of
people that will do self implantation
especially with the little needle ones
they'll just put it in themselves and
save on that installation fee um I am
not that brave and I am very happy
having body modders and piercers put the
implant to me for
me oh the recovery process uh yeah so
with mine let
me let me go
back so you can see here it's like a
very nice setup it's in this little
sterile needle setup and then it
literally is it feels like you're
getting a shot but but with a really big
needle uh so my recovery was about two
weeks while it healed and I was just
trying my best not to move it around too
much it does kind of Shuffle around a
little while it's healing but honestly
it was not terrible like uh let's see so
after they had put the implants in they
just kind of you know they they bandaged
it up and they were just like okay cool
and gave me a few Aftercare instructions
but really it didn't affect my life too
badly in the healing there was like a
little bit of bruising a little bit of
swelling but it really wasn't that
bad hi um thank you for the talk this
was really interesting um I'm wondering
if anybody in the community has ever
made I I've got very broken
understanding of um like Faraday cages
um has anybody in the community ever
made like um fashion
that could act as a faraday cage like a
glove or like a long sleeve to protect
people if you go to defc con or
something yeah so you're asking about
like essentially like a wearable Faraday
or something like that uh
so that I don't think I've ever heard of
anything of that variety part of that is
just because a lot of the times with
like you know RFID and what not you need
to get really really close up to the
implant in order to read that
information off of it so if you're
trying to protect against that you know
you would first of all need to have
somebody that knows that you have that
implant and again have that information
about what's on it and that decide that
they want that information um but yeah
really just kind of adding enough
distance between the reader and yourself
is enough to prevent uh people from
being able to just kind of read it
whenever uh it's already a little bit
difficult to get like readers to read
that chip in your hand because of the
layers of Flesh even when you're trying
to get it to read so usually if you're
like really worried you can just like
keep a wide birth from other people but
really the read distance is really
really small like uh if I open up my
phone
here like I really have to kind of push
it in in order for it to read so it's
usually not a concern but it is an
interesting idea and I'm sure somebody
out there has tried to just see what
would happen if they made
one I enjoyed the talk um I'm curious
what the removal process is like you
know we're we're probably going to
outlast them yeah so the removal process
depends on the kind of implant that you
have so you know the one that I have
here it's a nice little smooth shaped
glass capsule and what a lot of people
do if they need to do a removal is they
can cut a little slit right at the top
of it and you can just like pop it out
like a pimple uh it's I've seen a few
videos of like people doing removals and
it's like a little bit like gross
looking but it's relative ly easy and
not that painful um I've also heard of
people cutting a little bit up here and
then a little bit below it and then
using like saline to like shove it out
things like that so you know this kind
the kind that's in the little glass
capsules are very easy to take out
uh there's a few other implants like the
uh hold on like the flex models here
like the this one here with the little
LEDs that's a little bit bigger and a
lot more involved to get it put in and
so it's a little bit more involved to
get it taken out um but this one is very
very easy to pop out uh but hopefully I
will never have
to nice cool any other questions or
anybody want to talk about
biohacking does anybody else here have
implants
anybody you in the front row I know you
have one you're my friend uh but yeah so
you know uh thank you guys all for
coming to this talk uh I really was
aiming for this to be kind of like a
crash course introduction into
biohacking without needing to get into
the nitty-gritty uh if you guys are
interested in getting an implant
yourself I'd really recommend checking
out like the dangerous things forums
bioh hack.me there's a lot of really
cool community members that love talking
about their implants and their
experiences and their experimentation
and all the new funky things that
they're doing even if you are not the
kind of person that would want an
implant it's still super interesting and
I really want to urge you guys to check
them out because I love them very much
and they're very cool uh thank you guys
so much for coming and yeah have a nice
hope