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12/06/2026 - On Cyborgs

A while back I went to London and had a thought (rare. i know.). London is a huge, interconnected city unlike anything else in the UK, really it's like 3 cities roped together, to accomplish this its public transport is *fantastic*, you can get from anywhere to anywhere in the city in about an hour at most via the underground, overground trains and various buses. lots of the transport runs late and even overnight and its fairly cheap. it's great.

in order to get around on the london underground, you don't need to buy tickets, you just tap your credit card on the turnstyles to enter the underground, then tap it again when you exit. through the use of (presumably) some central server that all the stations connect to, it's able to determine roughly what route you took in your journey, and charges you accordingly, its super seamless

this kind of presents an interesting thought though, you *can't* get around in london without using the underground, like you can't walk most places feasibly, so what happens if you forget your card? what happens if your card is on your phone and your phone dies? presumably you're just fucked! so, if being able to move requires a card or phone, then to what extent is not having one almost akin to a disability?

following that, at what point are things we carry around but aren't physically part of our bodies essentially akin to limbs by their necessity to participate in society? are we all just cyborgs now?

I think to an extent i have a somewhat interesting perspective on this because i kind of am already a cyborg of sorts. about a year ago now i implanted a magnet into my hand for my 21st birthday. i got the kit from Dangerous Things and i was originally planning to get it installed professionally, this is annoying to do in the UK though because bodymods are pretty heavily criminalised here, so it's hard to find anyone willing to implant things into you, i was referred to someone at the time but they were busy, so i got bored and installed it myself one day.

it was probably the most painful experience of my life? essentially the magnet comes in a big syringe, you find a point on your hand with soft tissue where you want the magnet, pinch the skin, then stab the syringe into your hand about 2 inches deep, pull the syringe back a little, then deposit the magnet. after this you pull out the syringe at which point you will begin bleeding an awful lot, so you bandage and gause the whole thing. after a few hours it'll probably started to have scabbed up!

it was a really cool process despite (realistically) being kind of useless practically, it's a neat party trick but it's also something *i* did to *myself* that's super unique, so it means quite a lot to me personally that i have it. at some point in the near future i'd like to get some sort of nfc implant as well which would be very cool to have

Anyway tangent aside, as someone that has installed stuff into their body, fundamentally i think there isn't really that much difference between a tool that is essentially required for you to live, for phones specifically i think this raises some interesting questions. like, isn't it kind of fucked up that there just aren't easy ways to charge your phone up if it dies while you're out? it's easy to get food because *your body* needs it, but your phone isn't considered a part of that despite essentially being an extra limb, so it's not really that easy to recharge it in public

I don't really have any final thoughts here or whatever, i think it's just a neat thought i haven't thought the whole way through

see blog for many more new posts!