Ep. 12 - The Lepht Anonym Interview
In this episode of the Future Grind podcast, host Ryan O'Shea speaks with the controversial, semi-anonymous, and enigmatic biohacking pioneer Lepht Anonym. Lepht has been featured by WIRED and the BBC and has been documenting its biohacking experiments on it's blog, Sapiens Anonym, since 2007.
Lepht is most well known for a 2010 talk titled "Cybernetics for the Masses" that it gave in at the 27th Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, Germany, which detailed Lepht's DIY self-surgery & "homebrewed" implants. This has been referred to as "Scrapheap Tranhumanism", which is also the title of a 2010 article that Lepht wrote for Humanity+ Magazine.
*A word of warning - Biohacking is dangerous and things can go wrong. I strongly advise against self-surgery of any kind, and you should consult with a trained medical doctor before moving forward with any type of human augmentation.
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Show Notes
How transhumanism led Lepht to biohacking [1:34]
Practical transhumanism and iterative development [3:27]
Cybernetics for the Masses & Scrapheap Transhumanism [4:53]
Working (or not) with the medical community [7:44]
The story of Lepht’s first DIY implant [9:54]
The jump to magnet implants [12:06]
Experimenting with magnet placement & coatings [14:15]
Lepht’s how-to finger magnet implant guide [19:24]
Experience with sepsis & worst case scenarios [22:00]
Lepht’s current implants [24:16]
Southpaw & in-development implants [27:03]
The quest to overcome biological limitations [31:21]
Thoughts on life extension & the focus on sensory perception [33:13]
CRISPR/Cas9 & genetic engineering [35:17]
Anonymity & the meaning of Lepht Anonym [37:39]
An update on the life of Lepht [40:39]
Mentioned
Kevin Warwick
Amal Graafstra, RFID Toys
Biohack.me
Humanity+
Battle Angel Alita
Gray’s Anatomy
Steve Haworth
Justin Atkin - The Thought Emporium
- "The Complete Guide to Magnet Implants"
Sensebridge - Northpaw
Liz Parrish - BioViva
Josiah Zayner
Tristan Roberts - Ascendance Biomedical
"Lepht Anonym: Biohacker" by Voxis Productions
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