My name's Louis.
I'm 16 years old.
I go to Dobson High School in Phoenix, Arizona,
and I am a biohacker.
the world's most extreme body hackers
gather at a home in the mountains
beside the Mojave Desert for Grindfest,
a weekend devoted to the merging
of body modification and technology.
This year culminated with an electrified knife fight,
but the main draw was the implantation
of anything from magnets to microchips.
that it's kind of,
"Oh, they're piercing artists who are doing this,"
and that's OK.
The fact that we're using technology
when we're doing this,
people think of it as something different,
and it seems like,
"Oh, this is probably some dangerous thing."
And, "These schmoes in a garage
are cutting themselves” or whatever,
and it's like, no,
we actually do a lot of research.
We put a lot more effort into it than,
for example, a new implant
for the body modification community would.
–Biohacking and grinding appeal to me
because I was just looking for the next step.
We're always chasing after
what's gonna be the next big thing,
and, to me, grinding and biohacking
encapsulates almost all of the next big things.
–Rather than having this kind of,
"Let's talk about the philosophical ramifications
and the ethics of something,"
instead it's like,
"No, let's go in and let’s do some soldering
and throw some of this crap together
and see what we can get done."
–Grindfest is a combination of a family reunion
and a mad scientist convention.
The people who are here have wonderful ideas,
great skill sets.
They are both a family and a community,
and they're trying to help each other
do more and be more,
and that draws you in.
–What do I think about Grindfest?
We get out at LAX.
We get a ride that he's arranged,
and the first person I meet
is somebody of Caucasian descent
with two horns on their head.
We're very open,
but that was the first impression I got,
and I had to make sure I changed my thought process
and see everybody's hearts
and be aware of it.
So I like the hearts of people here.
I really do.
–A lot of biohackers for the past few years
have been experimenting with things
like magnet implants and RFIDs
or NFC chips that can confirm your identity
or work as contact-less payment
for credit card purchases.
I think a lot of that is getting to be in the mainstream.
And you see this now.
You see companies chipping their employees
so they can access their buildings.
–It actually falls under body modification.
I can't do anything that's truly medical.
I can't do anything that's gonna be really invasive
and can be construed as being some kind of surgery.
–Can you do incisions and surgery on yourself?
I think you should be able to,
but then you cross that line of
would it be safer to have a trained person
do that on you?
I think it would,
but perhaps that's illegal in some cases.
–I ended up with an eye injury,
and kind of was joking about,
Do we have the Terminator eye ready yet,
'cause if so,
let's take my eye out and we’ll put that in.
The doctor basically said,
"Yeah, no, we don't have that,"
and walked away,
but that led me to question,
what do we have?
So that got me into implanting
the injectable RFIDs,
NFCs into my hand just to see what I could do with it.
I can feel electromagnetic fields.
I have technically 6 senses now.
That's kinda cool, right?
It's a simple little thing you can do
but it changes the way you view the world.
Tomorrow, the FDA could say
everything that's happening here is illegal.
What I think we need proactively,
and we're trying to build this
from within and self-police,
is common-sense regulation so that people can say,
"There's already a standard of practices.
We know what the rules are.
We can play in this space."
are still in their infancy.
The future of body hacking
could have major impacts on society.
–Imagine falling asleep,
and your house knows this
because your temperature dropped
and your heart rate dropped,
so you're lights turn off,
and your doors lock,
and your house goes into sleep mode.
And then as soon as you wake up,
you don't have to do anything.
Your coffee maker starts brewing your coffee,
and your lights turn on,
and the shower starts running.
And this can all happen by sharing information
from your body with your technology
and having it interact with you,
and that's really what I'm looking forward to,
is outsourcing these decisions to my environment
so that I can focus on more important things.
–People like their Fitbits,
and if you can show them a tiny little implant
that acts likes a Fitbit but lasts for two years,
and they never have to worry about it
or think about it or recharge it,
it just shows up on their phone with their data,
there's gonna be a point where people are like,
"Yeah, do that.
That's awesome."