Have you ever felt that dread of forgetting your earphones at home leaving your ears unloved on public transport? Well Rich Lee has come up with a novel solution. By placing magnets in his outer ears, heās now able to connect up a coil to the hole in his outer ear and listen to music; pretty soon heās going to be able to do it wirelessly. Heās part of the body modification subculture that call themselves Grinders. While most people are asking why, Grinders ask themselves why not pushing their bodies to its full potential they cut themselves open to evolve their senses.
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With this in mind I called up Rich and we talked on the phone about where the idea had come from, watermelon sweats and the real reason behind putting magnets in his ears.Noisey: Hi Rich. So where did your interest in body modification come from? Rich: Iāve always thought it was cool aesthetically, subdermal implants, cybernetics, things like that. I like tattoos as well; I wish I had more of them.And what are Grinders groups like? Are they made up of people that watch Robocop too much?
Actually itās a pretty varied group, weāve got geeks, body-modifiers, sci-fi enthusiasts, very open-minded people. A lot of transhumanists.Whatās that?
A philosophy that says we can affect our own biology evolving with technology and improve ourselves beyond our current primitive forms. The human body right now is designed to deal with prehistoric threats; it hasnāt really caught up with modern times. Transhumanism essentially observes that now we can and should! That would be bionics, sensory extension, bio-hacking and sometimes genetic modification.Sounds cool, what hacks are out there for the human body?
Thereās a lot going on in the community, everything from genetic modification of muscle tissue for super strength to different sensory enhancements for detecting any spectrum of waves known to man. All kinds of sex implants, like, adult themedā¦vibrators implanted that, yāknow?Do "stuff?"
Yeah, haha. Thereās also hack out soon that would turn the smell of your sweat into watermelon instead of an obnoxious odour.
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So, do you read a lot of science fiction?
I don't, I come from a background in finance and international business, I havenāt read too much science fiction, which a lot of Grinders give me shit for. Iāll come up with an idea and theyāll say that I stole it from a book and I thought I was being original, apparently I just donāt read enough sci-fi. Iām not that well read in that style.Ha. Anyway, when did you consider the earpiece as a body-modification?
Someone else in the Grinder forum came up with the idea, using bone conduction instead of what Iāve done, it was their idea, I thought it was brilliant cause you could hook it up and listen to music or download data from something else.What were you familyās thoughts on the implant?
I told my wife, she thinks itās weird but Iām a weird guy and she knows that.She didnāt persuade you not to?
No, she knows better. She understands what she married.In laymans terms, what did it involve?
I went to a body modification artist, we met in Las Vegas. They put a scalpel into my tragus, the portion of the outer ear and put in magnets. The incision didnāt puncture the cartilage, which makes it much more bearable in terms of pain.Do you have a high threshold for pain?
All the Grinders have techniques to reduce the pain like putting ice on to numb the area. It wasnāt the most pleasant experience, though Iāve been through a lot worse.How did it feel afterwards?
My recovery was speedy; I had to wait a week to do anything with the implant.
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I read you have magnets in your fingers as well?
Yeah, when you put a magnet there the nerves around your fingertips regrow and anytime the magnet passes by a magnetic field it causes the magnet to vibrate. The end effect is you pass it through livewires and you could find if itās on or not.That sounds confusing, are there any other things you can do with it?
Loads of pub tricks, thereās so much free beer that Iāve gained from it. I can move things across the table like I have telekinesis.
What about the problem of metal detectors?
Theyāre so small that it doesnāt really come up on the detector.Do you feel drastically different now to how you were before?
Iāve been steadily making improvements, so I wont have to wear a coil around my neck. Itās gonna have Bluetooth soon.Check you. What are the uses you hope to get out of it?
Listening to music is a big one, Iāve been hooking it up to different devices to explore the world around me, like a contact microphone, I can now hear through walls at whatās going on around me. If I put it on a bar I could hear whatās happening on the other end of the bar. I can use it like a stethoscope and listen to somebodyās heartbeat.Woooah.Whatās the latest use that youāve thought of?
I want to add a thermal detector so I can hear a hiss if thereās something thermal nearby. I think you could definitely apply that use to a fire department. Metal detecting is something Iām looking into as well.
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What did you think of people criticizing you for potentially listening into other peopleās conversations?
I have better things to do, if I did it though it probably might save lives. I donāt wanna spy on my neighbours though.I guess the governmentās already doing it.
With stuff like PRISM, yeah, but Iām just one guy.Would you recommend that everyone have it done?
Our bodies are obsolete, if we want to survive; we need to be modified. Itās not for everyone but I do consider this the first step.The first step?
I donāt see a future where weāre not modified.Spooky. Thanks Rich!Follow Dan on Twitter @keendang
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