Have you heard of the Singularity, popularized by Ray Kurzweil, in which nanotechnology bonds with our biology and we all become transcendant super-beings who never die? It's a dubious possibility, though Kurzweil theory has inspired a whole school specifically dedicated to making his dream a reality. But it's just not soon enough for some people, and so Wired magazine introduces us to Lepht Anonym of Berlin.

Anonym is a biohacker, a woman who has spent the last several years learning how to extend her own senses by putting tiny magnets and other electronic devices under her own skin, allowing her to feel electromagnetic fields, or — if her latest project works — even magnetic north.

And that's not the important, stomach-churning part...

Since doctors won’t help her, she does it in her own apartment, sterilizing her equipment (needles, scalpels, vegetable peelers) with vodka. Good anesthetic is largely impossible to buy, so she screams a little, and sometimes passes out. But it’s worth it, for what’s on the other side.

The article is not for the faint of heart.

Hat tip to The Dish.