Quinn Norton
Seattle, Washington, United States
Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"Quinn went well beyond modern primitivism and piercings and delved into the social mores of self-improvement through surgery and chemicals, the creation of new senses and new "super-powers." Fascinating stuff, grounded in what's going on in the world right now." - Editor, BoingBoing.net, science fiction author
"Quinn Norton's personal story presents an intriguing look into the idea of using technology to acquire new super-human senses, but ends up uprooting even more complex debates on where to draw the line and the possible repercussions. Quinn presents the topic thoroughly and in a way that only a self-practicer could." - ToorCon Information Security Conference
"One of the defining talks of ETech 2007 was Quinn Norton's Body Hacks. She gave us a look at human enhancement being done by medical professionals and outlaw enthusiasts. It makes me wish for a time when our government will allow us to act on our bodies and minds as though they are truly ours." - O'Reilly Where 2.0 and Emerging Technology
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Body Hacking
with Quinn Norton
A multimedia lecture about medical frontiers
As medical technology becomes more advanced, it's falling into the hands of body hackers, people who enhance and change their bodies instead of just curing disease. Meanwhile, in traditional medicine, patients are encouraged to be active and informed, educating themselves about the latest medical research and taking control of their treatment. Where should we draw the line?
Traditional medicine modifies our bodies in ways that now seem commonplace: vaccinations that give us enhanced immune systems, plastic surgery to enhance appearance, laser eye surgery to give us perfect eyesight. But as the pace of advances quickens, ethical questions arise. What should be legal? Should we be worried that patients are turning into consumers? What should people be allowed to do to their bodies? It's likely that the body hackers, medical tourists, and other renegades of the world are likely to go forward with or without societal permission.
Quinn Norton personally explored the field of body hacking and its potential pitfalls. She had a small magnet inserted in one of the fingers of her left hand, allowing her to sense electrical and magnetic fields. In this multimedia lecture program she talks about some of the amazing new medical advances and crazy ideas people are experimenting with, and why the magnetic implant turned out to be a really bad idea.
Quinn Norton is a journalist whose work has appeared in Wired News, The Guardian, and O'Reilly Media publications such as Make magazine. She has appeared on NPR 's All Things Considered and has talked about Body Hacking at major technology conferences such as Toorcon, ETech, OSCon, and the Chaos Communication Congress.
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