Between Self-Tracking and Alternative Medicine

Biomimetic Imaginary in Contemporary Biohacking

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3808882
AutoresAntti Lindfors (0000-0002-9681-8047, University of Helsinki, autor correspondente)
Ano2024
Volume30
Fascículo1
Páginas83-110
Data de publicação2024-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoBody & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1357-034X • E-ISSN: 1460-3632
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1357034x231218413
OpenAlexW4390395994
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas44

While anthropological and social studies of the body have extensively explored self-tracking cultures, they have so far overlooked the phenomenon of biohacking, which represents a distinct though overlapping mode of contemporary techno-asceticism with its own set of norms and frameworks for bodily self-use. This article seeks to address this gap by examining biohacking within the context of self-tracking cultures and its simultaneous alignment with alternative health cultures. By analysing a substantial collection of recorded Biohacker Summit presentations, the study argues that biohacking reintroduces a dualistic biomimetic imaginary while simultaneously striving to transcend such dichotomies through a univocal emphasis on information processing. In particular, this is evident in the biomimetic impulse to align their interventions with the principles found in nature and to perceive technologies as subordinate to 'natural' biological processes, the privileging of the human sensorium as a bridge between science and nature, and the ultimate inclination to discard technology in favour of intuition and embodiment

Dichotomy · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Intuition · Psychoanalysis · Self · Sociology · The Imaginary · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Philosophy · Psychology

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