This is a page for questions that either have been or potentially will be asked. If there is such a question not on this FAQ, you may add it to the page.
If you have your own question not answered here, you may message any regular contributor. In any case, please read this FAQ before asking any questions.
Q: What is the purpose of this forum? Why not just join the DIYbio forum, which is very similar to this one?
A: They are not as similar as you may think. This forum is specifically dedicated to grinding, which, while it may be considered a subset of DIYbiology, is very far removed from the interests of most people on that forum.
We grinders are specifically interested in applying our knowledge to the practical, and in most cases immediate, modification of our own bodies. Although we use similar means as the DIYbiologists, the ends differ greatly.
Finally, it should be mentioned that many people on this forum are also members of the DIYbio group. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Q: Okay, I get the difference between biohack.me and the DIYbio group, but what about the grinding site grinding.be?
A: Actually, biohack.me and grinding.be are loosely affiliated with each other, and many people are active on both sites. In the words of grinding.be moderator m1k3y, "[A]s devotees of anarchist theory, we are all about networks not hierarchy." (NOTE: this section probably needs greater elaboration/expanding)
Q: Aren't you making transhumanism less appealing to the public by identifying it with body modification and self-surgery?
A: Grinders don't see that as the case at all. In fact, the argument could work both ways. Grinding is primarily about the practical application of transhumanism. Many transhumanists speculate about what technology will allow us to do far into the future, without attempting to do anything to the effect of that goal; not only that, but many of the technologies today that they mention are ludicrously expensive.
As grinders, we not only aim to bring about the ideals of transhumanism by making small, step-by-step improvements in the here and now, but also to make them more accessible to the public (given some pain). So, are the practical doings of grinding really going to be much more of a turn-off than the speculation that most other transhumanists engage in?