The Girl with the Augmented Body and a DIY Manufacturing Habit | Hacker News Reader

The Girl with the Augmented Body and a DIY Manufacturing Habit

exolymph.news

58 pointsexolymph44 comments

I'd seen the occasional bit about her on Reddit before, but I didn't know she was as deeply interested in technology. Her observations about the 'hacker scene' in China are really heart-breaking. So much potential, and it's all being largely ignored since it doesn't fit with the cultural expectations.

Hardware startup scene is doing well. Lots of Kickstarters here. But the idea we have Western style Makerspaces or Makers...no. Chinese are willing to invest a lot in education. But much less in a hobby. So the few real spaces are about classes for kids. But between classes you can go to TGN or Litchee Lab and use their laser cutter. Although I have not yet.

I'm sorry but, why should I care about this person? Is it because she reflects a growing trend or acceptance towards body modification and calls herself a transhumanist? Like, does she do anything interesting? A 3D printed model of her is... incredibly not very unique? Does she represent how diverse tech can be? Perhaps... but what's the point? "Sexy people can code too!" Yeah I realize. I'm sorry, I just don't see the point.

It's just a profile piece. It's not hard journalism nor is it trying to be. It's just a little picture of the life of a mildly interesting person. If you like, great. If you don't, you don't have to read it.

> If you don't, you don't have to read it.

That's not great advice considering I have to read it in order to determine if I like it.

I'm just not sure this article belongs on hacker "news", because it is not "news"

At least forty people disagree with you. You seem very sure they're all wrong.

Forty people??? Then it must be me who is wrong as it has been decided by plebiscite

Not necessarily, but it does make your opinion an unpopular one. I'm curious quite what you feel you're getting in exchange for all the effort you've put into advancing it.

it does make your opinion an unpopular one.

Not necessarily, it could be that only 40 people in a population of hundreds of thousands enjoyed the article, but only one of those others felt the need to point it out (against the HN guidelines).

Granted. The question stands.

Let's be real. The article is utter shit, and the only reason it's made it to the front page was because it had a woman in tech featured in it.

Curiously you seem interested in commenting on an article you didn't even like. I hope you realize that you are essentially upset because other people like something you think they shouldn't like.

I'm not upset, I just think the article is of poor quality. It has nothing to do with other people liking it.

Well you seemed to be upset that people (submitters and upvoters) thought it fit to be posted on this site and disagreed with your personal opinion on what, should or should not be posted on a community driven website. But if you're not, then there's nothing to talk about I suppose. So have a nice day.

> If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Note that the intellectual curiosity doesn't have to be universal. The upvote system is in place to determine what is sufficiently interesting to reach a given place in the rankings.

She 3-D printed a set of platform heels that concealed a pentesting kit: https://lobste.rs/s/5zflcd/sexycyborg_goes_pentesting

So that is at least somewhat interesting.

That was a fun read :)

Sounds like you may be distracted by the body mod/sexy part. Other than the crazy ideas about body modification that I commented on elsewhere, I thought it was interesting that in China making original 3D-printed gifts was something she saw as advantageous -- you "get a lot of face." The discussion of maker culture in Shenzhen was also interesting, since it contrasts with the US scene.

Cultural differences in how we end up putting technology to use are very relevant to HN.

I got "distracted" by it because it's a huge part of the article! I would have been interested in an article purely about the differences in maker culture. But that wasn't the article.

God forfend she be proud, or even unashamed, of the body she's made for herself at considerable effort and expense.

I'm not suggesting she not be proud or for her to be ashamed about her body. I'm just saying that it's not interesting to learn about. There are literally 3.52 billion women who should be proud of their bodies, but I don't feel obligated to listen to any one of them be proud.

also I'm pretty sure you meant to say "unashamed, or even proud".

Well, then, don't! And kindly oblige the rest of us by declining to do so a little less loudly.

also i said exactly what i meant

My obnoxious opinion is just as loud as your obnoxious opinion. I'm not shouting at you, it's easy to ignore. I'm not insulting anyone, I'm claiming this isn't interesting "news" and doesn't really belong here.

Why are you so worked up about this? You're being extremely abrasive and combative here. Webkike didn't slut shame this woman or insult her. The question posed is literally "what's the point?" The article did a poor job of making this profile interesting. (Sorry, Sonya.)

There could have been an interesting article here about the maker scene in China, or the unhealthy way many westerners online attack this woman for her appearance, or how non-stereotypical people can end up interested in the maker scene, or maybe something else. Instead we got a title that promised body mods and diy manufacturing and an article that delivered little of either. There were literally two into paragraphs, mostly about her appearance, and then "Given all of this context, I reached out to SexyCyborg for an interview." What context? And now a question about 3D printing?

If I wrote an article containing two paragraphs about a guy called CyborgJim who wears Metallica T-shirts, 3D prints Star Wars figurines, and gets called a neckbeard online and then jumped into a Q&A with him, someone would rightly say "why should I care?" And I doubt you would defend my article so vigorously.

> There could have been an interesting article here about the maker scene in China, or the unhealthy way many westerners online attack this woman for her appearance, or how non-stereotypical people can end up interested in the maker scene, or maybe something else.

And the article that actually was posted makes for a very workable entrée into all of the above, especially if you take the time to follow links from it or otherwise investigate.

> The article did a poor job of making this profile interesting.

You're right! But that's excused by the fact that it's an uninteresting article about an interesting person, who sheds light on an interesting culture, about whom and about which probably everyone who's commented in this thread previously knew nothing. In light of that, it strikes me as odd it'd be so divisive.

> And the article that actually was posted makes for a very workable entrée into all of the above, especially if you take the time to follow links from it or otherwise investigate.

I would not consider the article a "workable entrée" into any of those topics. Yes, I could do my own investigation into each of those things, but this article doesn't help much with that, nor does it manage to make me interested in any of those things. You can't expect people to read a bad article and then say "well, that was boring, but I bet if I follow every link here I'll eventually find something worth my time".

> You're right! But that's excused by the fact that it's an uninteresting article about an interesting person, who sheds light on an interesting culture, about whom and about which probably everyone who's commented in this thread previously knew nothing. In light of that, it strikes me as odd it'd be so divisive.

I don't agree. A poor article is not excused by having an interesting subject. A poor article will make a subject seem uninteresting, which is what happened here.

You are putting way too much effort into this discussion and care about this way too much. 7 posts in this thread in the last hour, geez. Just drop it and move on. You're being silly.

You're right. Between SJWs and anti-SJWs it is pretty much impossible to have a substantial conversation here. That's a shame, and it shouldn't take somebody else pointing it out for me to notice.

I'm not suggesting you should post this comment, or that you should not post this comment, I'm just saying it's not interesting to read. There are literally 3.52 billion people on the internet that could comment here but I don't feel obligated to listen to any one of them.

I will grant that I'm biased, but it's weird to me that you're extrapolating from "not interesting to me" to "shouldn't be interesting to anyone".

> Sounds like you may be distracted by the body mod/sexy part

I was expecting a piece about transhumanism, or cybernetics, or something like that. The title references the "augmented body" and the first paragraph mentions body modifications. I didn't expect that to just mean breast implants (the article says those are the most obvious, but I didn't see where it mentioned any others at all).

If the title had pitched this as a profile of someone who does some 3D printing but doesn't fit the typical geek archetype, I think it would have been a better (and more honest) title. As it was written, it seemed empty and entirely too focused on her appearance, so by the time it got to the actual interview I had lost interest.

Thanks

Things I thought were interesting from the article:

* ...all my code is for work and all my hardware stuff is for fun. The code stuff is just basic contract work — code monkey stuff. So I don’t get to be very creative. The hardware is where I get to do what I like. Using OpenSCAD is kind of fun though (in moderation) since it’s pretty much coding a physical object.*

* Our firewall issues here in China are making writing decent code pretty tough these days. It’s hard to stay up-to-date and hard to have any sort of a workflow when VPNs are so flaky right now. Even the best coders use Google — a lot. Mostly I prefer to open-source all my designs as a sort of statement to other Chinese about giving back to the online communities that have given us so much. If I could do that and still earn a living it would be great. *

* As far as functional, I know someone with an NFC implant. It’s fun, but it seems pretty silly to poke holes in myself for under 1kb when I have 1600cc of empty space just sitting there. Enough for 1000 terabytes or so, assuming 128gb micro SD density. Maybe if they increase the NFC implant memory size a bit, or deal with the battery and charging problems of powered implants. Maybe something for audio in the mastoid bone with an SDR? Seems pretty far off.

Good magnetic implants would be awesome for fashion and wearables. Safe coated magnets should be a done deal by now. I have no idea why we have not solved this or what the hold-up is. I could keep thigh-high socks in place without clips or needing to pull them up; pubic and tailbone magnets would mean stringless bikini designs. Maybe something near the collar bone for a top or magnetic pasties. Polymagnets would deal with a lot of the issues around power. Rotate to release or hold at a fixed distance without compressing the skin. But we can’t get any of that without safe, well-tested, and durable coatings for the magnets. *

and finally...

* Like most Chinese, I led a pretty sheltered life until I was eighteen or so. Fortunately my English is okay and I had access to VPNs, so I was able to learn more about the world than most, although I have never been to the West so I’m certainly not worldly or anything. *

As zaphar mentioned, the PenTesting shoes /w lockpick kit: http://imgur.com/a/c4WNF

>I'm sorry but, why should I care about this person?

I am the only English speaking, local Maker from Shenzhen accessible online.

I have more Open Source models posted on Thingiverse than any other mainland Chinese person.

I have posted large amounts of spherical 360º video documenting the local hardware scene in far greater detail than anyone else to date. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIwvGxjEKaE&list=PLzGeUG3dR0... )

I don't think I am very special. But there is a lot less relevant stuff posted every day that you do not go out of your way to attack and any of these should be of interest to HN whether I was male or female.

For people unable to read all the way through the title, it does say "...and a DIY Manufacturing Habit". </sarcasm>

Seriously, her comments about how "hobbies" like DIY manufacturing and Makerspaces are seen in China were eye-opening to me and definitely worth a read.

Magnetic implants. I have to say, I don't think about wearables or augmentation much -- I'm pretty old-fashioned although I read my early Neal Stephenson etc.

On the one hand, magnetic body armor. On the other hand, do we really have a good understanding of the electrical nature of the body? We've got some rudimentary understanding of the electromagnetic nature of the brain; we figured out we have iron deposits in our noses; we know a tiny bit about MRIs and their effects. You can induce vertigo with an MRI, for instance. But how would continuous low-level magnetic exposure affect everyday bioelectromagnetics?

I bet I know a way to find out.

> But how would continuous low-level magnetic exposure affect everyday bioelectromagnetics?

I'd wager not at all. There are plenty of people who wear magnetic bracelets, believing they provide some sort of health benefits. All the evidence says they do nothing at all. I'd expect the same for magnetic implants.

Let's hope the author doesn't ever go into an MRI... could be ugly!

Glad to see more diverse people are interested.

Many people on Reddit are convinced she is a he.

>Many people on Reddit are convinced she is a he.

Not sure where I would hide a penis in that bikini. Makes sense though. Tinkercad and RGB LEDs, tough stuff.

This is irrelevant.

> I have a better firewall than most people, though. None of it is in my mother tongue, so it does not really run on bare metal, as it were.

> Fortunately my English is okay and [...]

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