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cybernetics for the masses
A long time ago, I saw a talk from Lepht Anonym (linked below) called "Cybernetics for the Masses". It was about doing DIY experiments on oneself, and exploring human augmentation through subdermal electronics. Things like RFID/NFC chips and magnets implanted under the skin. People in this underground, DIY scene were called "grinders" and "biohackers" (nowadays, the term "biohacking" also includes things like taking nootropics and doing weird diets, so i stick with the "grind" term).
Needless to say, I was instantly fascinated by the talk given, and I instantly searched out and began reading on Lepht's blog (also linked below). I have long been on the fringe of technology and DIY stuff, and while I had heard of the concept before, I hadn't explored it very much until after listening to Lepht's talk.
After doing loads of reading and lots of consideration, I decided I was going to do it. I lived in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma at the time - this was around early 2016. I was aware of Dangerous Things, an online store that sold implantable electronics in kits. RFID/NFC chips, neodymium magnets, all kinds of interesting things. I finally landed on getting a xNT chip, placed my order, and waited for it to arrive. When it showed up, I decided against doing the procedure myself and had a friend who was a piercer do it for me.
The chip was implanted in my right hand. It is easily programmable (chip type is NTAG216 and has 888 bytes of writable memory. I use the NFC Tools app for Android to program my chip.
I keep toying with the idea of playing with biomagnetism. The idea of being able to "feel" magnetic fields (and do fun little party tricks) sounds like an interesting experiment to me.
I'm not sure if I'm going to do that idea or another chip of some kind, but have been thinking for the last few years of doing something new. This year (summer of 2026 as of the writing of this Wiki entry) is a decade with my implant, so it has been quite a minute since then. Going to be interesting to see what we go with next.
I will update this wiki entry in the future with further information and further grind projects.
"Grinding" as we call it is a super niche technological subculture, mostly made up of DIYers. Nothing that you can purchase has been approved by any medical body, and anything you choose to implant is at your own risk.
If you are into this kind of thing like I am, however, there is a lot of fun to be had with it if you're into the idea of doing weird things with technology and using that technology as a literal extension of yourself. You can program these things to do all kinds of different stuff. I like the idea of, as Lepht put it, using the right over my own body to explore these concepts.