Hey everyone! So much has happened. I’m now the CEO of Symbiont Labs and we’re building a lab out on Roatan Island. We’ve got a huge Summit coming up in July and tons of new biohacks and implants to share, so stay tuned. Today I want to talk about my journey to Symbiont Labs. I’ve run Augmentation Limitless for over a decade and we’ve done a lot of really cool things. If you’re just now learning about us, Auglim is like an auxiliary force that helps things happen in the biohacking scene and our annual event “Grindfest” is one of a few annual meetups where projects come to life. Being a biohacker really has been a charmed life. I’ve been given the opportunity to meet some of the most brilliant people on earth and then cut them open. I left the nursing field after Covid and it was rough going keeping the lab open for a while there.
We got a ton of support from our community and for a while ended up slinging implants at events like Defcon and BdyHax. We even had a big gala a good friend held for us called “Future Flesh” in the bay area. It was a blast and as much as I love performing body augmentation it seemed a waste that we were always on the road while our more important work – developing and fabricating new bionics and cybernetics languished back home in Tehachapi.
It wasn’t that we lacked ideas. We’ve helped a lot of groups to fabricate amazing prototypes which we then tested in the flesh, but there are such prominent obstructions that prevent the work we do from going to market.. At least in the states. I mean, despite some of our biggest fans being physicians, surgeons in the US aren’t willing to risk their licensure. We’ve largely gotten around this problem by having devices placed by body modification artists. I know of about five artists that I trust enough that I’ll send them my work for placement. If we’re hoping to create an entire industry, then demand for artists will quickly outstrip supply. Furthermore, the legality of body art differs drastically from county to county and is constantly under attack.
The second issue holding back Biohacking and Cybernetics is a lack of access to appropriate biomedical materials. These companies (understandably) zealously oversee who they vend and license to in order to limit liability. So, even if you come up with a great new design, there isn’t a company in the world where you can go and have it coated and tested similar to FDA approved biomedical implants. So there was no way to have them made safely and no place to have them safely and legally placed.
Late last year, Niklas Anzinger reached out to me about running a lab during the Vitalia pop-up city. I have so much to say about Vitalia but I’ll keep it short here. I have never before witnessed a gathering so transformative on so many levels. I’m proud to be a part of Vitalia and I have no doubt these are the people that are going to build the future. When it started, it was slated for three months. Jan, Feb, and Mar of 2024. But it got huge. They started with a one month extension, then another, and now Vitalia is going to remain open year round with different focuses each season.
Those first 3 months were amazing. When I went down, I had ideas about trying to pitch a company but nothing concrete. The Vitalia Biohacking lab opened up in the Prospera Beach club. It’s a really slick location right across from the BiFat Clinic and the gym. We had a lot of very cool events. I taught Anatomy and Physiology for biohackers. Dr. Bharat came down and led a brain dissection. Rochelle Chen shared her knowledge and stash of nootropics. We did a few implants. We set up the Ganzfeld Stimulator like at Neotropolis. My friend Storm came most mornings letting me experiment on him with electrostimulation.
The very best stuff however came about through collaboration with other Vitalians. We helped M Goes perform a study regarding the cognitive effects of insufflated insulin. We had lines of folks coming in, getting an EEG placed, and then kneeling on the lab floor and snorting fluid out syringes. You can find the results here: Intranasal Insulin
It was a fun study and while we did get a cease or desist letter it was only because we failed to notify the right people beforehand. In fact, through discussion regarding how to improve on the study and other like studies in the future, BiohackerDAO was formed.
Right from their site,“BiohackerDAO is a citizen science organization dedicated to running decentralised health experiments and responsibly collecting, analyzing, and monetizing data generated in the process.”It’s a great group and I look forward to seeing what else they come out with.
This wasn’t the only study we helped with. Maia from Cosima gave a talk about a catcalling study she’d performed and remarked that modern science is failing to address a lot of important topics. One such example is the effects of human pheremones on behavior. We’ve got some pretty good research regarding certain animals but the data is strangely lacking for humans. Next thing we knew, Vitalians were lining up to help up test the efficacy of vabbing. If you aren’t familiar, vabbing is the practice of using vaginal secretions which are rich in pheremones as a perfume to increase the interest of potential mates.
And it seems to work: https://www.cosimoresearch.com/posts/human-pheromones-part-1-vabbing
Following that we helped Maia set up a followup which seems to indicate that using semen in a similar way also increases the interest of those of the opposite gender. Maia is calling is spabbing, but I’m pretty sure she made up the term.
Check it out here: https://www.cosimoresearch.com/posts/human-pheromones-part-2-spabbing
So we did a bunch of research. Other groups like the Biohacker House were doing a ton of their own. It was super collaborative and multidisciplinary and I look forward to sharing all the organizations that have formed and their output as we move forward.
We also worked with the great people at MoonDAO to run makerspace through the first four months of Vitalia. MoonDAOs contributions enabled us to get equipment we otherwise wouldn’t have had access to on the island. We focused on 3d printing, injection molding, and a rather well stocked electronics workshop. Adi from Life.SI taught classes through the week on 3d design and fabrication and the machines were in constant use. We got a great turn out with all our lab events and classes and I think it all turned out great. The lab really as an essential part of Vitalia. We provided the space, tools, and assistance helping Vitalians demonstrate their new tech, new ideas, and we provided a lot of cool learning opportunities.
As I’d said earlier, When I went down I had vague notions of pitching a company. I knew little of the process and was highly intimidated. I wasn’t alone. There were a lot of people who were brilliant in their field but had little business savvy. I was lucky to have three people mentoring me through the process who I’ll be eternally grateful to. One of these people is Pedro Henrich. Pedro is this super welcoming dude who came out to the island for other reasons and ended up running an accelerator program. It was weirdly organic. Pedro began giving bits of advice. This turned into impromptu classes and personal sessions. I got to watch people start with an idea, hone them into viable plans and then successfully pitch. Soon, Pedro was running pitch contests for Vitalian in front of major investor groups. When they announced that Vitalia was going to continue past the initial 3 months, they also announced the new accelerator program with Pedro at the helm. I have to say it’s well deserved and he’s helping a lot of people.
Now, I’m going to be emotional and weird here so be prepared. My journey through creating Symbiont Labs was an emotional rollercoaster man. The thing Pedro gave to me was an unwavering faith that Symbiont Labs is the future of cybernetics. It was Pedro who really helped me see the scale of what we’re doing. I mean, I’ve always believed that cybernetics and bionics will be our saving grace. Our path to being better, living longer, knowing more. Pedro helped me believe in myself. He helped me believe that we’re going to be the ones making it happen.
And Pedro was right.
Let me tell you where we are now. We’re currently building our Lab in Roatan. It’s an implant fabrication laboratory and implantation clinic.
We’re working with physicians and some of the top body mod artists to provide safe legal procedures and to teach artists from around the world. We’ve got a fellowship program in the works and with the assistance of Vitalia we’re bringing out some of the top biohackers and cybernetics developers. We have our first products being manufactured now and so many more designs on the way.
We’ve also got our inaugural Human Augmentation Summit on July 22-28th. I’m super excited. We’re going to have implants, electric knife fights(non leathal), a nootropics bar, and the Kyber Rave on Saturday night. It’s going to be huge and I’ll tell you more about it soon.
The point of all this is to say we’ve made it. We’ve created the bedrock for a consumer cybernetics industry. There now exists a place where it’s safe and legal to get a non-medical implant. A place where you can have it performed by a physician and receive comprehensive care. We’ve made a place where you can fabricate devices made to the same rigor as an equivalent FDA approved implant. We’ve removed the barrier to the future we want. Thank you so much everyone for helping us create this and being part of both our history and our future.