DIY biohacker community gathers to compare implants as they seek cybernetic reality

As magician and biohacker Anastasia Synn approaches her home, she tries to open the front door and finds it locked. She gently grazes her hand onto the lock, and suddenly she's inside.

This is no magic trick. Synn has a microchip implanted into the web of her hand acting as a digital key to her home, and she gave ABC News a demonstration. It's just the first of 52 implants she's had surgically placed, making her a Guinness World Record holder for most technological implants in the body.

ABC News met Synn and other biohackers at the May 2024 Grindfest, an annual meetup of biohackers that's been happening for the last decade in Tehachapi, California. One attendee said she was an interface designer, another said they had a master's in human anatomy. They all had the same mission, to merge with machines. Some referred to themselves as "transhumanists."

"A transhumanist is someone who has decided that they want to transcend what humanity is capable of at this time," Synn told ABC News. "So whether that be with installing electronics under your skin so that you can unlock your front door, or taking nootropics to live longer and stronger, they all sort of fall underneath the umbrella of transhumanism."

That thinking is the reason for the name of the event.

"If you are someone who hacks your skin with an electronic, we also take it further and call them a grinder," Synn said.

It sounds like she's living in the future. However, grinding comes with its own set of medical challenges.

"My hot take on the implants is to proceed with caution. There's risk of infection leaving it in the body, risk of inflammation, scar formation, long term effects," ABC News Medical Correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton said.

"And then what do you do with that device when you want to get it removed? What happens when there are complications that we simply can't treat because we have devices in our body and we can't properly diagnose because the imaging is not compatible?"

Synn acknowledged the tradeoff.

"I have to sacrifice some modern medical technologies because of my implants, so I can no longer get an MRI," she said.

Synn was married to fellow magician The Amazing Johnathan, who died in 2022. Some of her implants serve as memories. Using her phone, she scanned a microchip installed above her heart.

"This is the moment I married my best friend," her phone declared, before their wedding video began to play.

She then scanned a part of her arm and his memorial service began to play. Wiping away tears, she explained one implant is a heart-shaped locket containing his ashes. It's also a magnet so "he can perform his favorite magic trick from the great beyond."

Observing other grinders in attendance, one man swiped his ring-adorned hand across his face and his prosthetic eye glowed with a green laser. He told ABC News he has several prosthetic eyes for different occasions.

Another attendee, Asya Davydova Lewis, showed off her colorful nails where she attached magnets and microchips as a way to test them out before implanting them beneath her skin. They had varying functions, including an NFC chip that goes to her website and an LED light.

"There's a TEDTalk about how we're all cyborgs. It really resonated with me," she said. "My room in my house, my car, my clothes are my exoskeleton. Without them I'm not exactly me. So adding more technological technology, didn't really seem that weird."

Quinn Mooney, an electrical engineering student known in the group as Moon Man, has a magnet implanted at the end of his finger that he says helps him to identify different wires in his job. He said his current project is designed to help his diabetic father.

"I'm trying to do blood glucose using vibrations with a small passive implant," Mooney said.

Asked if what they do is punk, there was wholehearted agreement.

"This is biohacker Disneyland," Lepht Anonym said. "This is the place where you can have some wacky idea and someone will go 'No actually we can make that real and we'll do it now.'"

Most of these projects are DIY, with few online marketplaces to buy these microchips.

"Very few products in this category are FDA-approved," Dr. Sutton said. "There's limited data and research to understand the risks and the complications, and that just opens you up to liability."

While far from normalized in the U.S., these grinders have found solace in the Caribbean. Inside a furnished barn at Grindfest, former nurse and co-founder of Grindfest Jeffrey "Cassox" Tibbetts drew a crowd. They wanted to hear about his latest developments from his time on Roatán, an island off Honduras.

"It's a city that's a special economic zone called Próspera," Tibbetts told the crowd. "They're creating environments where we have regulation friendly to what we want to do."

Tibbetts claimed with the regulatory freedom offered by the charter city -- which the New York Times reported is partially funded by venture-capital funds backed by the Silicon Valley billionaires Peter Thiel, Sam Altman and Marc Andreessen and only partially overseen by the Honduran government -- there are some physicians interested in taking part in more invasive projects at his cybernetic implant clinic Symbiont Labs.

He noted that infamous venture capitalist and biohacker Bryan Johnson expressed interest in biomedical implants during his visit to Próspera. Johnson reportedly spends $2 million a year on his health with his open-sourced project Blueprint, in an effort to slow his biological aging.

Dr. Sutton warned medical tourism carries its own set of risks.

"What I would keep in mind is that there's no guarantee that the standard of care outside the United States is the same inside the United States or if it's as safe, and that can expose you to risks," he said. "So it's so important to do your research and do your homework before you get involved."

Tibbetts told ABC News his role in the community is "risk amelioration," calling for Grindfest attendees to set the standard for safe implantation, including improving the coatings on their DIY devices. Most of them avoid implanting themselves with anything containing a battery, citing risks due to the heat generated and the possibility of toxic leakage.

While countries like Sweden have rapidly embraced installing microchips as a way to speed up daily life with payments, access to office buildings and storing emergency contact information, bioethicist Dr. Jacob Boss of Indiana University said acceptance in the US could be a way off.

"Plastic surgery has undergone a journey of normalization, really starting with advances in the mid-twentieth century," he told ABC News. "Now, when it comes to [technological] implants they have not undergone that process."

When ABC News asked Synn -- the magician -- about the holy grail of grinding, she immediately brought up billionaire Elon Musk's brain chip implant Neuralink.

"The thing everyone wants is Neuralink. It's frustrating because it's out there, but we don't know how it's built," she said. "So, if Elon [Musk] was willing to open source all of his stuff like we do, that'd be great."

Neuralink is still in its infancy. The implant has been tested on just a handful of subjects to assist people with paralysis control devices.

"It works on the premise that your brain's electrical signals can interface with a computer's electrical signals," Synn said. "That is the dream, the ultimate goal. That is the 'Johnny Mnemonic,' everyone's favorite movie in biohacking."

Dr. Sutton expressed caution about such implants.

"There's definitely potential, but I do believe that we are very early in that science. We are still learning about how the brain works in general," he said. "So the idea that a brain-computer interface, something that you would implant into the brain, can reveal these benefits, I think it would be really difficult because there's so much that we don't know."

At his talk in the barn, Tibbetts also called for autonomy over data ownership. Dr. Boss says it's a common topic of discussion with grinders.

"There's a lot of concern about putting something inside the brain that will be collecting information directly from your body in such an intimate way. That technology being owned and operated by some kind of external entity -- it's a source of profound concern," he said. "Grinding and biohacking is so invested in the DIY model because it puts the technology and the information in the hands of the makers to share their vision of the future."

As the sun set on 2024's Grindfest, the group gathered for their annual tradition of sparring with electric training knives. Their squeals and laughter echoed against the mountains.

Synn invited anybody who's curious to join the crew at Grindfest.

"Just come hang out with us for a bit," she said "I bet you any money by the end of the weekend you're going to leave with a microchip."