“Bio-Punk”

“Rich Lee, a grinder with dreams of turning his pelvis into a cyborgian vibrator, is in the front row.”

If I give you this quote, what do you think a Grinder is? Great– stop right there. Grinders, it turns out, are punk biohackers who experiment with rogue body modifications in attempt to better the human condition (‘biohacking’ here having lost its valley-Bro connotation), and a gathering called Grindfest recently took place in rural California, complete with presentations, implants, and a whole lot of posturing. Replete with under-skin devices, DIY vaccines, and of course piercings and tattoos, this crowd is about beating the institution to the punch: its host, for example, has implanted RFID chips in his hands that open doors at his workplace– a ten-year head-start on Elon Musk, who’s working on a similar implant that might make telepathy real, and memory loss a thing of the past. (But I think we know who’s winning here.)

From Alice Hines, the author of the Times Style article on this (which is long and full of fascinating details and very much worth a read): “Ambrosia, a San Francisco start-up, offers an experimental anti-aging therapy in transfusions of young plasma (the cost for one liter: $8,000). Another, called Nectome, says it’s developing a brain-embalming procedure which would allow thoughts and memories to be digitally brought back to life (the company also says it would have to kill you for the technology to work). The billionaire Peter Thiel reportedly expressed interest in the first company; Sam Altman, president of the start-up accelerator Y Combinator, paid $10,000 for a waiting-list spot with the second.”

Yeah, so remember when computer hacking was a budding hobby? Prepare for the biohackers.

Did you see Elon Musk went to the Met Gala with Grimes? Sorry– Grimes went to the met Gala with Elon Musk. Place that directionality where it belongs. Anyway, they’re dating, and not that you really need the details, but here’s a pretty wonderful excerpt from the New Yorker bit about how this came to be:

“According to Page Six, the couple met when Musk recently tweeted the words “Rococo Basilisk,” a near-nonsensical pun riffing on the A.I. thought experiment Roko’s Basilisk, which hypothesizes about the likelihood of a future artificial superintelligence killing those who didn’t help to bring it into being; he discovered that Boucher made the same joke three years ago, and reached out to her. The possible connection here could be neatly characterized as Burning Man-esque. One can imagine the pair sharing insights about space travel, psychedelics, polyamory—mining the kind of self-exploration that has begun to split the difference between Silicon Valley libertarian nerd-core and millennial Tumblr-bred experimentalism.”

Key takeaway, though, is that there’s no longer a real barrier between indie and mainstream; all the Valley bros are doing ayahuasca and all you office people are real into matcha. And that, my friends, is why this beautiful couple can be together.

I have something that’s right up your alley. A new company named after its designer, Alex Crane, has opened up shop in a studio down the road from me, and they’ve just debuted a thing they call the ‘play suit’. Sewn from monochrome linen, it’s a line of unisex, matchy basics, just button downs and bottoms. It’s comfortable for all things; a solid summer go-to from a young, nice dude who used to design for Jack Spade. Recommend.