“An incision was made in the side of my hand – they separated the fat and the skin layer to make a little pocket,” says Meow Ludo Disco Gamma Meow Meow.
Inside that pocket inside Meow’s hand is his Opal Card, his train ticket. No more awkward fumbling through his wallet at the turnstile, no more queuing at the top-up counter, Meow just swipes his hand on the card reader and he’s on his way.
Only, there’s a setback. Meow’s Opal Card has been canceled by Transport NSW who argue it was not being used in accordance with their Terms of Use.
He claims his implant will measure in real time a cow’s weight, heart rate, blood pressure, fertility, even its stress levels – and humans are next.
But does Transport NSW need to review their Terms of Use? What responsibility do designers have to prevent or manage how people use technology in ways that were never intended? Has Meow taken a small step to advance Australia’s cyborg revolution? These questions will likely come up tomorrow when he takes on Transport NSW in a Sydney local court.
“I hope he embarrasses the shit out of everybody who tried to mess with him,” says Tim Cannon, whose own body is augmented with magnets and microchips.
Tim is one of the godfathers of the biohacking world and he’s in Australia to begin testing an implantable health tracker for cattle. He claims his implant will measure in real time a cow’s weight, heart rate, blood pressure, fertility, even its stress levels – and humans are next.
