How Biohackers Try to Update Their Minds, Bodies, and Human Nature

You have probably even come across some version when you have not heard the term “biohacking” before. You may have seen Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey praise the great things about intermittent fasting and the “salt you drink” every morning. By chance, he learned that former NASA employee Josiah Zayner injects himself with DNA using gene-editing technology. You may have heard of the Bay Area company that is dedicated to “dopamine fasting.”

Biohacking, also known as DIY biology, is a broad, amorphous term covering various activities, from conducting technological experiments on yeast or other organisms to tracking their rest and diet to changing their biology by pumping. The blood of a younger person to his veins hopes that he will fight until he grows old.

The type of biohackers currently gaining more notoriety will be the experiment, outside of spaces and institutions. Traditional lab tests — on their bodies in hopes of improving their physical and cognitive performance. They form an offshoot of transhumanism, a movement in which humans can use technology to augment and evolve our species.

Some biohackers have doctorates in technology; others are complete amateurs. In addition, their ways of wanting to “hack” biology are as diverse as they are. It can be tricky to learn about the…