Day 253: Oh, I'm a cyborg now?

Little did I expect, waking up on Monday morning, that this would be the week when I became a cyborg. But let's take it from the start.

Yesterday I was one of the speakers at Huddle, an event arranged by the global media and marketing company Mindshare. The theme was "Man vs machine". I talked about how the sharing economy makes us more social by being more digital, basically exchanging the "vs" with an "&". And of course I shared some of my experiences from having had over 150 Airbnb guests, renting out my toilet and more.

It was a really cool event. Among the speakers were Sweden's first astronomer Christer Fuglesang, digital profet Shingy, professor and robotics researcher Danica Kragic and Sarah Wood, founder of Unruly and #3 coolest woman in tech.

I also had time to check out some of the other activities as well. For example I met the founder of sharing start up eyeoda, which is about giving people technical help - such as for home electronics - using your phone. It sounds like a great idea.

And Wakayama, a start up for internet of thing devices. I wanted to start building things for my home right away, but apparently they were mostly for making prototypes. I talked to the founders, presumably brothers, about my project and related stuff and they explained they're "urban nomads". Another of those concepts I had never heard of before starting this project but that I now come across sometimes. It makes sense of course, if your work is totally Internet based, you can work from anywhere.

This is what I really love about this project - meeting people that are thinking outside the box.

And then in one of the rooms you could get a micro chip implant. I remember I saw this on TV many years ago. It was about some night club in Barcelona where the members had chip implants and I thought it sounded completely crazy. I've never been one of those tech freaks. (Which not getting a smartphone until 2016 suggests.) I even did my masters thesis in computer science mostly using pen and paper. But since this year is about trying new things, I though: why not.

So here I am, with my new chip. And now people have been welcoming me to the cyborg world. I didn't even think about that. I'm a cyborg? This thing doesn't interact with my body in any way, it's just a chip kept under my skin. I think having a cochlear implant would be more cyborg. And for now I can't do a lot with it. But it's a great new business card. If someone swipes their phone over it my contact details pops up. At least if they have an android phone. Which I don't... so at the moment I can't change the information either... but it's a great feeling being an early adopter for once.

Like Lego for IoT.

Chipped!

Shingy about mind mapping.

Yes, I was nervous. But he was very professional.