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"I like to think I have cyborg upgrades."

She's a biohacker with three microchip implants. Brut filmmaker Jessey Dearing met Amie Dansby as she gets a new one installed.
Transcript
00:00The idea of getting chip implants is sometimes a little shocking to people.
00:05Someone called me Electric Jesus.
00:07Yeah, I like to think I have cyborg upgrades.
00:18I kind of view it as what it could be.
00:21I think that starts with the curious mind.
00:24Microchip implants have been used in the medical field for decades.
00:27But now, an estimated 100,000 people worldwide have non-medically necessary chip implants,
00:32sometimes called biohacking.
00:34They can be used for security reasons, to unlock a door, share information, start a car, and more.
00:39For Brute, I'm in Seattle, Washington, to meet up with software engineer Amy Dansby
00:44to learn more about how she uses her chip implants and watch as she has a new one installed.
00:48Not everyone gets excited when I think about, like, oh, this is a chip implant.
00:56It's not for everyone, but it doesn't have to be.
00:59The chip's no bigger than a grain of rice.
01:01At least here in the U.S., there's an idea of microchipping your dog or your pet.
01:04So if they're lost, you can take them back to the vet, and they can scan them,
01:08and it has, like, ID contact information of the owner.
01:11It is essentially the same thing.
01:13It's about the size of a grain of cooked rice.
01:17The implant is just in a hollow injectable needle.
01:23And it just goes underneath the skin.
01:24It's just, like, going to get a piercing.
01:27I originally wanted to get one because it gave you access control to unlock your door.
01:33Well, I don't have to carry keys anymore.
01:34This is my front door.
01:36It's locked.
01:37This is the Samsung keypad.
01:39I cannot get in.
01:42All I have to do, just take my transplanter implant,
01:45put it there, open.
01:47Voila!
01:49I was very curious, like, how that worked, what else you could do with it,
01:53how much data you could actually store on it.
01:55So I have three chip implants so far.
01:57I have one in the webbing of my hand, one in the top of my hand, and one in my forearm.
02:03Started with the one in the webbing in my hand.
02:05Essentially, they're all RFID or NFC, which is just this near-field communication.
02:10It's not connected to the Internet.
02:11That's what a lot of people think it does.
02:13It is not active, meaning it doesn't have a battery in me.
02:16It's not always putting out a signal.
02:18It is passive.
02:20I have my contact info linked to this one specifically.
02:23And the nice thing about having the LED, it pops up and shows where it is in your reader,
02:28and then it will take you to my web page.
02:33My parents always encouraged us, like, if we were curious.
02:35Like, whenever I would get new toys, like, I would want to take them apart to figure out, like,
02:39how do they work, how do they move?
02:41I got to make and blow up stuff and have little electricity, like, science projects.
02:47And absolutely loved that part of my childhood.
02:55My day-walker job is as a software engineer in the gaming industry.
02:58And by night, I make cosplay, I work on LEGO, I do 3D printing, I do CNC, I do ethical satellite hacking.
03:06I don't consider myself an artistic person or creative without the use of, like, any type of technology.
03:15I love making cosplay stuff.
03:17Like, if I could have my chip implant work with a cosplay prop so I could pick it up and it would light up,
03:22that would be amazing.
03:24My idea was like, alright, this is probably not the worst thing I've put in my body.
03:28What else can I do with these implants?
03:30And that led to the chip implant.
03:32What else can I do with these implants?
03:34And that led to the journey of getting the Tesla implant and kind of making my own.
03:46I hadn't seen anyone do this before.
03:48It's not something you could just go to the internet and type into a search engine.
03:54So when I got my car, it came with these valet keys.
04:00Very similar, people will see, maybe it looks like a hotel key.
04:05But there is a NFC chip inside of this card.
04:08But the biggest thing for this was the antenna.
04:11And I needed the antenna to be able to read and communicate because, same as this and same as my chip implants,
04:16there is no, it is passive, there's no battery in this.
04:21So you have to be very, very close.
04:23So for scale reference, this is the size of the other two chip implants that I currently have in my body.
04:28The Tesla one, for scale, is the size of this Lego minifig.
04:33Not the width, but the length of it.
04:35So I took the original Tesla valet card and I melted it down in acetone.
04:40I extracted the chip that was in the card and then created my own antenna
04:44and then encased that in a biopolymer, which is safe for the body,
04:47and then had that injected underneath the dermal layer of my skin.
04:52Sometimes it's kind of hard to tell, but you tap it here and then you would open the door like that.
04:57The key is in me, so I would tap behind the cup holder to authenticate
05:01and then I would be able to drive, once I put on my seatbelt.
05:08So when I worked on the Tesla hack, I got some backlash from this wonderful place called the internet.
05:15Some people said, oh, so now I don't have to steal your car keys, I can just chop off my arm.
05:19I'm like, sure, murder and grand theft auto.
05:23It's just very hard when people send you hate mail.
05:26Somebody sent me ripped out pages from the Christian Bible, which already seems malicious.
05:32So the part that they highlighted and said,
05:34unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name, this is called for wisdom.
05:40If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast for it is man's number.
05:46His number is 666.
05:48A woman clothed with a son with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head.
05:53She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
05:56The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour her first child.
06:02The moment it was born, she gave birth to a son, a male child who would rule all the nations with an iron scepter.
06:10So they sent me a pregnancy test, essentially saying that I'm like the downfall of this woman and the dragon or something.
06:16I don't know.
06:18Very, very weird.
06:20Then followed by like really nice stuff from little girls that I inspired for STEM or for Lego stuff.
06:28Like the letter from like the kids, like that's, that's neat.
06:31Like when people say like, hey, you inspired my kids or you inspired my little girl to,
06:36that they can dress up and, you know, have representation of what they want to be and still do the things they love.
06:43That's pretty neat.
06:47So I can see where we're going.
06:54So we're heading to get a chip implants with Kat.
06:57This chip will do everything from payments to authentication to UbiKey, two factor authentication and your Tesla.
07:07I did do some measurement on this chip size.
07:09It is not quite as big as a Lego minifig, but it is in a diameter.
07:15So it's a circle.
07:16I think it's like 22 millimeters.
07:18So I'm assuming it will have to be done with some incisions or stitches.
07:24Don't typically like pain.
07:27And that seems ironic.
07:28But when you want something, the pain is very different.
07:31I feel.
07:32Hi.
07:33Hi.
07:34Nice to meet you in real life.
07:35We have a lot of mutual friends who are in cyber security or info sections.
07:40No, I'm a developer advocate.
07:42Oh, wait, I think I didn't know that.
07:46Hi.
07:51I'm going to go first.
07:52That way, Kat, we can have shared trauma.
07:58I appreciate it.
08:13Stop.
08:14You're being a real trooper, Amy.
08:16I can take the pain.
08:18What was worse, watching it before and knowing, or no?
08:21No, it wasn't bad at all, watching you.
08:26My friend Charlotte has a couple of implants, too.
08:30And she's extremely interested in the larger ones.
08:36She doesn't know exactly what I'm getting.
08:38She just knows I'm getting a bigger one than I am.
08:40And I'm like, I don't know what I'm getting.
08:43She doesn't know exactly what I'm getting.
08:45She just knows I'm getting a bigger one than she has.
08:48I'll be interested to see if TSN has anything to say about this.
08:53If this one's any bigger?
08:54Yeah, because this one's so much bigger.
08:56That's what I would be curious about.
08:58Let me know how that goes.
08:59I will, yeah.
09:02Most chips can be installed quickly with an injector or a piercing needle.
09:05But the new chips that Amy and Kat are getting are a larger experimental chip
09:09that require an incision and stitches.
09:12We did the damn thing. I'm so excited.
09:14I know. He's like, does the LED work yet?
09:16I'm like, probably not. I'm like too bloody.
09:19Yeah, too bloody, too swollen.
09:25Look, I'm red.
09:26Ah!
09:27Oh, it's already way better than my Tesla one.
09:30The LED indicator is like super helpful.
09:33Yeah, it's flashing green.
09:35It's so cute. Let me see.
09:37That's so dope. Yeah, yours.
09:42It's not a new technology.
09:44It's been around a very, very long time.
09:46Yeah, and having these things is why the people who think
09:51that they're sneaking 5G tracking chips into vaccines...
09:54You'd be like, I wish.
09:55I wish. I wish. Holy crap.
09:57People always think that those chips are connected to the internet at all times.
10:01They're powered and they are connected to the internet
10:03and somebody's tracking you remotely.
10:05Oh my god, that would be so sick.
10:08That's what...
10:09Like, sign me up.
10:10There's also been...
10:11I've had good discussions with people.
10:12I'm like, all right, no, it doesn't connect to the internet.
10:15But if it did, would you put one in, like, your kids or something like that?
10:19Like, is that...
10:20And then that brings up the thing of whether it's an invasion of privacy
10:23or is it like a security, like, moral, ethical...
10:27I guess there's some political arguments that come in there.
10:30I do think that that's unethical because it's too easy to abuse.
10:33But that's the point.
10:34Like, having those conversations...
10:36Good conversations come from this, I feel.
10:38For sure.
10:39Putting, like, a different thought process in people's mind, at least.
10:42Like, I'm not trying to, like, put one in you
10:44or, like, get you to join my non-cult.
10:47But, yeah.
10:50No, this thing is, like, for me, it's strictly, like, it is a security thing.
10:54Because if you have to cut off my arm to, like, get my one-time passwords,
10:59then maybe you earned it.
11:01That's what people say for my car.
11:02They'll be like, oh, so now we have to, like, cut off your arm
11:05and it's Grand Arm Auto or something.
11:08I was like, yes, well, one becomes, like, murder
11:11and one is, like, stealing my keys.
11:13Yeah.
11:14But also, it's just kind of f***ing cool.
11:17Oh, and it also has an LED.
11:18Yeah.
11:19It's so cute.
11:20It's just f***ing cool.
11:27Some people think it's weird to have a chip implant,
11:30but in some way, I look at the beauty industry.
11:33I see ads on social media all the time, like,
11:35you know, it's so common now for women to have Botox and filler
11:38and it's considered the sign of beauty.
11:40And even in the, like, plastic surgery,
11:43I think it's so interesting that some of those things
11:45are totally acceptable and normal.
11:48But to have a chip implant is, like, oh my gosh, it's not normal.
11:54You see how I'm flashing red?
11:56There we go.
11:57If I'm trying to convince you to get a chip implant,
11:59like, it's ultimately your choice.
12:01I'm not trying to, like, win you over to my side.
12:04If I can just educate you and you can make your own informed decision,
12:07then I've already, like, done something to get you thinking in a different way.