A Dude in Australia Implanted a Metro Pass in His Arm
LifestyleNewsSkin & Hair October 22, 2023 Damon Mitchell
Meow-Meow | news.com.au
Tired of carting and presenting his Opal metro card, the contactless smart card used in the great Sydney’s transportation system, a commuter who goes by the name Meow-meow implanted a chip under his skin.
The chip works using near field communication (NFC), something we’ve seen from other biohackers like Amal Graafstra and Rich Lee.
Meow-meow’s move made the press in Australia, but it also irritated the New South Wales (NSW) Transport Authority. They responded via the press.
“Transport for NSW does not support the tampering or damaging of Opal cards, which would be a breach of the terms of use,” a department spokesperson told The New Daily. “Customers that are caught tampering with their Opal card may have their card canceled.”
It’s laughable that they would even care, but they did. The NSW deactivated Meow-meow’s old Opal card after the news broke. Sadly for them, he implanted the technology using a different, yet-unregistered card, so no harm no foul.
The act of implanting little chips is nothing new, but we can expect to hear more reports of everyday folks removing mundane annoyances from their lives by following Meow-meow’s footsteps.
This is the new normal.
The Chip
NFC technology is low-level radio signals. It usually requires close contact to work, closer than a normal metro card.
Anyone who’s attempted to pay for anything by swiping her smartphone o er an NFC receiver knows how this goes. It’s gotta be right up against the scanner.
Meow-meow, like most biohackers, went to a piercing expert for the install. It’s not much harder than getting a new piercing. The guy who did it, a man named Joeltron, has a chip too.
Joeltron uses his NFC chip to start his motorcycle. Most importers go for the webbing between the thumb and pointer finger, but Meow-meow went for the back of his hand.
Sometimes he has to swipe more than once, but for him, it’s more hassle free than carting around his old Opal card.
“It’s the simplest things you want first, like opening doors, PayPass, things you’re doing all the time,” he told The New Daily.
Meow-Meow
His full name is Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow-Meow. In Australia, he’s a bit of a sensation, at least in New South Wales.
In 2016, he ran in the Australian Federal Election on the Science Party ticket. He didn’t win, but the race put his name out there.
In fact, one can still read his election platform on the Science Party site:
“Meow is a passionate molecular biologist, entrepreneur, and futurist… He is heavily involved in the democratization of science through his work in co-creating a network of internationally connected biohackers and physical community laboratories.”
His song is a familiar one. We here it from the likes of more powerful players in the movement, people like Elon Musk and Bryan Johnson.
It’s not enough to implant chips for fast metro rides, Meow-meow wants to extend human life.
“Personally my goal is to… increase life expectancy by more than a year per year,” Meow-Meow said in an interview with ABC. “Once you can get to that you are functionally immortal.”
Metro Implants
What’s in it for the NSW transportation authority to stop this? Happy metro riders are a good thing, right?
If there are negative repercussions from Meow-Meow’s actions, it will be on him, literally. Nothing falls on the Metro Authority.
If they were smarter business people, they would embrace the free press, but make an official statement about not condoning the behavior.
Obviously, they have to protect their bottom line. If others follow Meow-Meow, then great. Call them guinea pigs for the future of metro transit. In time, implanted chips will be status quo. We’ll use them for more than riding the metro.
That said, Body Hacks cannot condone this sort of behavior or anything like one might read on our site. We’re only reporting on this for entertainment, at least for now.
When humans are living more than “year per year,” then we’ll change our tune…