MEET A REAL-WORLD CYBORG

Hannes Sjoblad, Chief Disruption Officer, Epicenter Stockholm

Portrait of Tammy Strobel

Hannes Sjoblad, Chief Disruption Officer, Epicenter Stockholm.

My Reading Room

You have an implant in your hand.

Tell me about the day you decided to get it.

I was looking at Kickstarter and I saw this new type of implant which was NFC enabled. This was interesting because NFC is a new kind of standard which is used in all kinds of devices.

I thought this should be interesting to test, so I bought ten kits from them because I wanted to share them with my friends. The reason for doing this is curiosity. I think it’s very interesting to explore implant technology and what it can do.

What’s your favorite thing about having this implant?

So the idea is that you use the implant instead of key badges, swipe cards, magnetic cards. And it turns out that there are many places where we use this kind of gadgets that we can replace with the chip implant.

So for me, the main benefit is that I no longer have to carry the keys and cards in my pockets all the time because I have the key with me in my hand.

So is there a common misconception about implants?

I think a lot of people are worried that the chip implant can be used for tracking them. I can tell you it’s not a problem because the chips we have are passive, which means that they cannot send signals by themselves.

If I get lost in the forest, you cannot see where I am. The chips have to be within one centimeter to talk to each other.

You call yourselves ‘biohackers.’ How would you explain what biohacking is?

Biohacking means experimenting. Not hacking in the sense that you break into a system and steal money or data.

Hacking, in the original meaning, of experimenting. The difference between biohackers and traditional hackers is that we don’t only work with software and hardware, we also work with biological systems. We can hack bacteria, plants, animals, and humans.

You sound very optimistic about biohacking. But, you know, in the movies this is the moment when zombies start appearing.

So, my message is: do not trust Hollywood (laughs). Because in the movies you need something that’s scary. This makes for powerful stories.

If you look in the movies, you have Terminator, or Iron Man, or Robocop.

You have worrying images. But if you look in the real world, who are the cyborgs? It’s the old lady who has a hearing aid. It’s the old gentleman who has a pacemaker. So I don’t think we should fear the cyborgs.

If we project 10 years ahead, where do you see this biohacking future heading?

I see many ways that biohacking can help improve the world, but I’ll give you examples for chip implants. We are working on chip implants that can monitor health and what is happening inside our bodies. And this will mean we can see, for example, if you have increasing cholesterol. And you would be able to see that very early before you actually develop problems.