Digging through your purse or pockets every time you enter public transit can be a hassle, so last year Australian biohacker Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow-Meow (yes, that’s his legal name) had a chip from a transit pass implanted in his hand. The chip allowed him to tap on or off of trains in Sydney with a wave of his wrist. That is, until last August, when transit officers handed him fine for traveling without a valid ticket, despite still having $14.07 still left on the chip.
On Friday morning in Australia, in an unprecedented legal case, Meow-Meow pled guilty in a local Sydney court to charges of traveling without a valid ticket and failing to produce a ticket for inspection. The battle, though, is likely far from over. At the heart of the case is not just whether one man was within the bounds of the law when he took apart his transit pass and implanted it in his hand, but whether governments have the authority to intervene in the technology we put in our bodies, and how laws will adjust to the rapid expansion of implanted technology.
“I paid my fare. I tapped on just like anyone else,” Meow-Meow told Gizmodo. “The law hasn’t caught up with the technology. That’s all this case was.”
Read the full article at https://gizmodo.com/australian-biohacker-who-implanted-transit-pass-in-his-1823832689
