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Pharmaceutical giants are holding sessions about topics such as childhood cancer and anti-aging drugs at South by Southwest (SXSW). But it is the lightly regulated "biohacks" that seem to get all of the attention:
"I'm here to make the argument that you have a moral imperative, if you're an employer, to hack your employees," said Dave Asprey, founder of Bulletproof 360, during a session called "Would You Let Your Boss Biohack You?"
Asprey's company sells products with names like Brain Octane Oil, containing supplements Silicon Valley calls nootropics, which are purported to enhance cognitive function. He is also a biohacker. That means he takes nootropics to improve his performance in life, refuses to ingest a long list of chemicals that includes fluoride, and averages six hours and six minutes of sleep every night. During his talk, Asprey was wearing sienna-toned sunglasses, which, he explained, were hacking the light.
At Bulletproof, every employee has access to nootropics and is encouraged to expand his or her mind accordingly. Asprey is particularly fond of modafinil, which he calls "the Limitless drug" in reference to a 2011 movie in which Bradley Cooper finds a pill that makes him a genius. Sold under the brand name Provigil, modafinil got Asprey through the Wharton School, he said, and it has "the safety profile of ibuprofen," a statement with which the Drug Enforcement Administration would disagree.
And the biohackers are around too. This one seems to have gotten hold of a MinION:
Heshan Illangkoon is a self-diagnosed polymath who divides his time as an entrepreneur in residence at the University of Florida between astrobiology and synthetic biology. He goes by Dr. Grasshopper. Among his scores of business ideas is one derived from surprisingly hairy mice. He and his fellow Ph.D. scientists dosed lab mice with a bunch of insulin and noticed that they began sprouting hair. When they took a look at the follicles, they realized it was the result of a hormone called IG1, which reared up in response to the insulin. Now they've got plans to whip up a hormone-laced gel they believe could safely replicate that phenomenon on the bald pates of humans. "That's a billion-dollar product right there," Illangkoon said.
And what about the years-long process of getting FDA approval? Illangkoon responded with a not-fit-for-print suggestion for what could be done with the FDA. He then retrieved from the pocket of his pastel pink pants a handheld genome sequencer to demonstrate how new technology has democratized what had once been monopolized by the gatekeepers of Big Science.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @05:24AM (6 children)
So, Dude, is this like doing so much weed that, you know, wow, you like actually see the structure of reality, laid out before you, and shit? Wow and like way cool. Does anyone have any Doritos? (Nothing is more pathetic than Millennial hippies, so late, so after the fact, so non-political, and, no sex.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @05:42AM (1 child)
Personally, I would suggest him go take some N,N-Dimethyltryptamine and talk to God for a while.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 16 2018, @09:35PM
After pointing out that smoking DMT was like smoking burning plastic, the DMT explained that he had the wrong number of arms, legs, fingers and toes.
My schoolmate readily agreed yet was overcome with the worst kind of horror because he could not figure out why.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday March 16 2018, @01:22PM (2 children)
Will we get an "I am not a crook" too in a few years?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday March 16 2018, @08:34PM (1 child)
The people who were at the right age for '68 are now retiring, and many have money to spend. Subconsciously appealing to them can be highly profitable.
> Will we get an "I am not a crook" too in a few years?
Are you willing to wait, or will you take a "no collusion" today ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @08:40PM
I'll go for real proof, not some dubious e-mails, and people who were rounded up for starting small protest events (on both sides of the political spectrum).
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 16 2018, @09:33PM
Just saying "Dude!" doesn't make you a surfer.
Start by doing 500 push-ups-then-stand-ups every day.
You have to be quick and precise to get a ride.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Friday March 16 2018, @05:31AM (1 child)
A prestigious line of work, with a long and glorious tradition.
Lucky for them, there's a sucker born every minute.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 16 2018, @09:31PM
"Drink toe jam tea every evening at bedtime. It boosts the immune system and makes your farts smell great!"
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @07:55AM (2 children)
Spoken like a psychopath?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @07:59AM
We must follow the Boss unto undeath! Long live the Boss! Long live us all!!!
(Score: 4, Touché) by OrugTor on Friday March 16 2018, @04:07PM
No, spoken like someone who believes using the word "hack" in every sentence is compelling marketing.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @09:12AM (2 children)
https://www.ft.com/content/0a5a4404-7c8e-11e7-ab01-a13271d1ee9c [ft.com]
Maintaining a SF tradition...
And down near the bottom of the FT article there is a brief "flashback":
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @09:37AM (1 child)
That might be the best thing Steve Jobs did: inspire a bunch of Silicon Valley misfits to do hallucinogens, as that place continues to worship him as a God and pore over every bit of wisdom He had to offer. Ride the blood unicorn, fellas.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by VLM on Friday March 16 2018, @12:39PM
Mostly its homeopathy. There's an aspect of the left wing religion that worships communal life above all else especially individualism. All innovation comes from teams and processes and similar non-reality based proclamations, no individual ever invented or did anything all that matters is the commune. Now in the face of that, all innovation fundamentally actually does come from individuals, but for religious reasons it can't be admitted or commented on because that is a heresy, no one wants to be an excommunicated sinner, etc. But if you use LSD homeopathy or similar snake oils as a fake crutch to introduce new ideas, well, then the evil individual didn't innovate, the drug did. Kind of like how gun crimes are caused solely by good people holding bad evil guns. In more civilized parts of the country, if you have a great idea, you simply say "hey I got an idea how about..." whereas in CA the way it has to be for religious belief reasons is "hey I sniffed the air over a LSD blotter and the burning bush told me ^h^h^h chemical told me we should try ...".
Note that homeopathy means no longer taking supplement pills mostly stuffed with grass clippings as per recent DNA analysis stories, instead you can cheaply and medically safely print fake blotter acid pages on the ole laser printer. Eating a tiny postage stamp of paper is much healthier than random grass clippings masquerading as supplements.
I've kinda followed the nootropic people for a long time; its kinda like workout performance boosters where anything that works is medical-ized into a very expensive therapy drug, leaving not terribly much, mostly stuff too difficult to productify. So you, caffeine, various amino acids like creatine, some minerals where the USRDA is very low for weird historical reasons or sometimes no reason at all, that's about it, frankly for both weight lifting and nootropics. And the classic "drink more water" because most people are some low level of dehydrated most of their lives.
The biggest "chemical based" weight lifting gains I ever got were from ink on plant based cellulose fiber; write up a detailed lifting plan for each set while reviewing the last couple days results, then follow the plan, recording how many 100% successful correct reps I made at the planned weight. Its ridiculously easy to get stuck in a rut accidentally if you don't write everything down. Oddly enough ink on paper is also the best way I know of to study academically. You'd get more gainz by scrapping both supplement industries and replacing them both by handing out spiral notebooks and ink pens.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by requerdanos on Friday March 16 2018, @12:46PM
Okay, up front: I don't trust the government in general and I don't trust the FDA in particular. The FDA wages war on, or falls in love with, arbitrary treatments before they get the data in many cases, and then they cherry-pick studies that seem to support their love and/or hate.
And I believe in better living through, in part, pharmacology and psychopharmacology. There are treatments that can improve degraded function.
Now, on to Illangkoon: While the FDA is dangerous, this guy is much more dangerous. The FDA, for all their hubris, still work for evidence-based safety in many areas. Evidence-based safety is really the only kind that matters. Sure, our hit-or-miss evidence-based safety system has failed occasionally (thalidomide, Dimetapp with phenylpropanolamine), but the some-deranged-idiot-says-it's-safe safety system is almost *guaranteed* to fail.
Safety isn't decided by the decree of "the new pocket gene splicing democracy" or any such nonsense, but by recognizing whether something is already inherently safe, or inherently unsafe. For that, we use science, not opinion polls.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by cocaine overdose on Friday March 16 2018, @01:11PM (2 children)
Fucking Indians. And more specifically, fucking people without any self-awareness, which greatly overlaps with Indians. This pajeet calls himself a polymath, a "serial entrepreneur," and "Dr. Grasshopper." How more delusional of your own grandeur can you get? I swear to god, I have had to call myself a "business director" and a "guy with many talents" because all these people, who've never spent a day outside the giant safe space that is a college campus, keep wearing down the words and I don't want to be associated with them. You're not a fucking entrepreneur because you setup a drop-shipping process, you're a package handler. You're not a serial entrepreneur because you made a few shitty websites, you're a bad webdev with no sales talent. You're not a polymath just because you've a few read textbooks in two or more specialties, you're just an average bloke who fell for the scam that is textbooks/journals.
And about his "scores of business ideas," you can tell exactly what type of lad he is. An "ideas person," with no other goddamn skills. He can't even hype his brand up properly: "That's a billion-dollar product right there." No, Abdul, that's $20 to get an interviewed by a no-name publication. "And what about the years-long process of getting FDA approval? Illangkoon responded with a not-fit-for-print suggestion for what could be done with the FDA. He then retrieved from the pocket of his pastel pink pants a handheld genome sequencer to demonstrate how new technology has democratized what had once been monopolized by the gatekeepers of Big Science." The absolute state of dumb PhD grads.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday March 16 2018, @04:47PM (1 child)
Isn't it a pretty subjective term to begin with? It's not like you can be a licensed polymath or apply to some academic organization to be named one, can you?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by cocaine overdose on Friday March 16 2018, @05:00PM
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 16 2018, @09:26PM
If I ever worked for a company that encouraged me to take their own brand of Happy Pills, I'd start looking for another job.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]