The Biohacking-Code: An Eternal Pursuit of Perfection—The Myth About Living Forever?! From the Fine Line of Self-Optimization to Self-Destruction
摘要
Biohacking has been trending more and more frequently for a few years now, especially on social media. After many people of all ages tried to optimize their health in self-experimentation via super food and cross-fit or power yoga, the holy grail now is sought in biohacking. Opinions differ on the terminology alone, because “hacking” is not necessarily recommended for imitation in the computer world, as one often finds oneself on the edge of natural system boundaries or even in a legal gray area. Hacking one’s own body and trimming it to new heights, for which it is possibly not even created on the basis of biology and genetics, is somewhat reminiscent of Greek mythology. According to tradition, the “Icarus myth” states that the overconfident can easily burn themselves in the sun and that those who aim too high will be punished by the gods with a fatal crash. In biohacking, you push your own self-optimization to the absolute extreme in order to thereby achieve the “best version” of your body. On the way to crack their own “bio-code,” biohackers often go beyond limits. True to the motto “Trial & Error,” which can sometimes also mean a deterioration of health or physical well-being or pain. For example, fasting cures during intensive training sessions or the famous ice barrel or cold chamber to improve regeneration, which should animate the body to behave in a certain way.