Microchip implants give Jedi powers to lifelong Star Wars fan
Australian ‘bio-hacker’ Shanti Korporaal has modified her body with RFID and NFC chips she has programmed to open doors, store her health and contact data and turn on her smartphone
“Phone, keys, wallet.” It’s a mantra repeated by commuters the world over. Not so for futurist and entrepreneur Shanti Korporaal. Hers is different, something like “phone, hand, other hand”.
The 27-year-old Australian beat the system – no more patting herself down, no more misplaced keys – with two jabs of a needle. The twin microchips implanted in the webbing of her left and right hands are keys and wallet, compressed into glass capsules the size of rice grains. (She’ll have to wait a little longer to embed a wee smartphone.)
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“I grew up watching Star Wars,” says Korporaal. The mystical powers of the Force made a lasting impression. Now, like a Jedi, she has the power to wave through doors.
To those of us who do not have microchips under our skin, such technological conveniences may seem a little perplexing. To the small but growing community of “bio-hackers” – which has existed, in some form, since the 1980s – it is simply another step in the long history of human self-improvement.
Through her companies, including Future Sumo and Chip My Life, Korporaal and her husband, fellow futurist Skeeve Stevens, aim to make tech implants more widely available.
Thanks to the RFID chip embedded in one hand, Korporaal can unlock her office’s garage with a back-handed bump to a scanner as she zips into work on her Vespa. On the other hand in the same spot, the fleshy space between her thumb and forefinger, sits a near-field communication (NFC) chip that stores her health and contact data. She can feel a chip’s hard lump if she probes with a finger; otherwise, she’s used to them.