Glossary of Human Ingestibles and Injectables

By Jason Worth

Nanoparticles

A nanoparticle is a small particle—undetectable to the human eye—that ranges between 1 to 100 nanometers (nm) in size. In comparison, coarse particles or “dust” are 2,500 to 10,000 nm in size, and a sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick. Due to their relatively large surface-area-to-volume ratio, nanoparticles can exhibit significantly different physical and chemical properties to their larger material counterparts.

In industrial applications, manufacturers add carbon nanotubes to materials (called composites) to enable them to achieve better performance characteristics. For example, nanotubes that bend in response to the application of electrical voltage will cause aircraft wings to flex, while other types of nanotubes added to baseball bats result in a much more rigid product that weighs less than a traditional bat.

Because of their very small size, nanoparticles are being used in a variety of applications within the human body, and they can be deployed to various locations via the bloodstream. The delivery of drugs is a major application for nanoparticles in the body. Chemotherapy drugs can be targeted directly to cancerous growths, and cardiovascular disease drugs can likewise be targeted to arrive at points where arteries are damaged.

Nanoparticles are typically taken into the body through inhalation, skin contact, or injection into the bloodstream or body tissues. Because nanoparticles can be taken in by inhalation and skin contact, it is possible to inject nanoparticles without either a person’s active consent or even his knowledge.

Given the competitive nature of advanced industrial design and the opportunities for large profits, much research into nanoparticle drug and composite development today is sheltered under non-disclosure agreements. Although a significant amount of nanoparticle composite and drug research and development (R&D) is being undertaken for reasons described as positive and beneficial to the human race, the secrecy inherent in this field—combined with the ability to covertly deliver end products that are essentially invisible—means that there exists a real and meaningful potential for nanotechnology to be deployed on the human population for undisclosed and possibly nefarious purposes.

Biocompatible Quantum-Dot Tattoos

According to Wikipedia, “Quantum dots are tiny semiconductor particles a few nanometers in size, having optical and electronic properties that differ from larger particles due to quantum mechanics. They are a central topic in nanotechnology. When the quantum dots are illuminated by UV light, an electron in the quantum dot can be excited to a state of higher energy.”

What does this mean? It means that because of their small size and ability to store large amounts of data, it is now possible to embed large amounts of data on human skin. The data are not readily seen by the naked eye, but if you pass the skin under an ultraviolet light, specialized readers can detect and read this information.

Currently, much discussion is taking place in certain corners of the Internet, as well as in established academic and scientific journals, suggesting that quantum-dot tattoos will soon store information regarding vaccination and other related medical information pertinent to a human’s health. Specifically, if you receive the anticipated Covid-19 “injections,” it is conceivable that you would have this fact recorded invisibly on your skin and that this proof-of-vaccination record would enable you to circulate among the public as a “safe” citizen not able to infect those in your midst who may not have received such a “vaccination.” Some are referring to these invisible tattoos as “immunity passports,” and you very well may ”need” one in the near future to travel about, just as national passports now give you the ability to cross borders and sightsee.

It doesn’t take long in a review of quantum dots and immunity passports before the words “blockchain” and “cryptocurrency” also start to enter into the picture. Blockchain plays a role because it allows the authenticity of the user’s immunity record can be safely and securely recorded via cross-referenced blockchain data. (In other words, this would make it difficult to “fake” or “pretend” that you got a certain vaccine, because blockchain technology is designed to prevent such fraudulence.) The connections with cryptocurrency are a little less clear, but once one gets blockchains involved for one function, it’s not a big leap to start integrating cryptocurrencies into the equation, as they are also tightly integrated with blockchain technology.

Those of you familiar with and sensitive to the Biblical prophesies regarding the Mark of the Beast in Revelation 13 should be concerned by the information in the preceding paragraphs. Only time will tell if quantum-dot tattoos represent such a mark, but there is surely the potential that as things are currently shaping up, you may not be permitted to circulate freely in society without an immunity passport invisibly stenciled on your skin. (Perhaps on the forehead or hand?) Add to that the fact that cryptocurrencies may be involved, and you may also not be able to “buy or sell” without complying with whatever new mandates are required by agencies such as the World Health Organization and other global agencies involved in the immunity passport project.

Implantable RFID Chips

Implantable RFID chips act in a similar fashion to the quantum-dot tattoos. However, rather than being an invisible ink-like tattoo, these are very small storage devices—the size of a grain of sand—that can be embedded just below the surface of the skin. RFID chips can hold encyclopedic amounts of information.

Bioelectronics

As the name implies, bioelectronics is a field of research at the convergence of biology and electronics, but more specifically, it could be said to be the application of electrical engineering principles to not only biology but also medicine, behavior, and health. Applications of this research include bioinstrumentation (the use of bioelectronic instruments for the recording or transmission of physiological information); biomechatronics (the integration of computer-controlled mechanical elements into the human body for therapy and augmentation, an example of which could be a robot arm grafted onto an amputee, integrated with the person’s muscles and directly controlled by his mind); and biomimetic systems (artificial structures that seek to emulate biological functions, such as a biosensor that performs tasks typical of the human neural system.)

One of the most common applications of bioelectronics is to improve the lives of people with disabilities and diseases. Implantable glucose monitors allow diabetic patients to control and measure their blood sugar levels. Electrical stimulation devices are used to treat epilepsy, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, and other ailments. Other devices that stimulate the vagus nerve can reduce inflammation in patients with arthritis as well as aid those suffering from depression or epilepsy.

Brain-Machine Interface Technology

Brain-machine interface (BMI) technology has come a long way from the early days when an experimenter or patient would wear the equivalent of a knitted ski cap outfitted with various sensors that would monitor brainwave activity and feed the data through physical wires into a nearby computer. With the benefit of hundreds of millions of R&D dollars invested since then, and the miniaturization of advanced technology, BMI technology has now advanced to the point where a very thin neural lattice can be attached to various parts of the brain to facilitate the interaction of mind and machine. Applications include off-brain data storage, complex computer-aided analysis, and the control of remote machines.

Supporters of BMI research and development have high expectations that BMI will benefit humanity. From their perspective, paralyzed or immobile patients will be able to operate robotic limbs (today) or entire artificial bodies (in the future) to interact with their environment. Industrial, medical, and other workers will be able to operate large-scale industrial machinery or small-scale surgical devices, using just their minds, to conduct dangerous or highly skilled activities more safely and efficiently. And the merging of mind with machine—in this case, artificial intelligence (AI) and non-brain data storage—will enable users of BMI technology to potentially integrate the best that artificial intelligence has to offer (such as signal refinement, analytics, and pattern recognition) with the inherent cognitive and decision-making capabilities of the human brain. The term “human plus” is sometimes used to describe this merging of humans and machines, and you can certainly see how researchers and entrepreneurs might be excited about the promise that these external capabilities could have for the human mind.

As with any drug or device that influences the human mind, however, there is opportunity here for damage and misuse. For example, if taken to the extreme—where the “external” AI becomes the controlling force in the mind-machine partnership—a form of slavery could develop whereby the body could serve at the control of the machine. Also, external parties (such as a dictatorial political power) with the ability to influence or control the machine could place limitations on what the human brain can think, feel, or do.

Genetic Engineering/Gene Editing

We are undeniably at the forefront of a new wave of human evolution through the application of gene editing. In November 2018, a Chinese scientist shocked the world when he announced he had (illegally) modified the genes of two twin embryos before birth. His gene editing somewhat benignly but nonetheless dangerously (given the early state of gene editing sophistication) altered the genomes of these soon-to-be-born humans to provide them a form of immunity against contracting the HIV virus over the course of their lives.

We all can easily see where this path will lead. Want to birth a child with an enhanced chance of becoming the next Sy Young award-winning pitcher? Just tweak the genes for arm strength and muscle dexterity while it is still in the womb. Want your child to be a genius with well-above-average intelligence? Tweak the genes for intellectual capability and curiosity. Want your offspring to challenge Mozart or Bach for best musical score ever written? There are probably genes identified related to musical composition and creativity. There just may be no better topic than gene editing in which to engage in debates about bioethics.

On the one hand, humans could be said to be on a never-ending quest to better ourselves, in some way or another, during our time on this planet. Just think of the Olympics and other sporting contests. On the other hand, those who will likely receive gene edit “tweaking” will likely be the offspring of those who are already rich and well-connected, which will only further the divide between the haves and the have-nots, resulting in an even more unbalanced world. As we test and develop these new capabilities at the genome level, there will inevitably be mistakes and unintended consequences along the way. Thus, there is the potential for great harm as well as good.

Fetal Tissue Transplantation

Various tissues harvested from live fetuses are used for a variety of purposes. One very common application, which does not involve transplantation into other humans, is as a medium in Petri laboratory dishes to grow viruses that will be made into vaccines for humans. Human fetal tissue is the preferred medium because the viruses used in human vaccines tend to grow better in human rather than animal cells. Also, the very young age of the fetal tissues makes them superior to older human cells; fetal cells last longer due to the fact that they have not divided as many times as older human cells.

Fetal tissues are also injected into humans and again are considered superior to older human cells for two reasons. First, unlike tissues from older humans, fetal tissues lack cell-surface markers. The absence of these markers means that the fetal tissues will not trigger an immune system reaction by the host body, which could lead to tissue rejection and transplant failure. In addition, cells in certain parts of the body do not regenerate after birth or after a few years of life. Adult brain cells, for example, regenerate slowly if at all, but when fetal brain cells are transplanted, they will grow quickly. The first recorded fetal tissue transplant was in 1921, in the United Kingdom, so this process has been underway for decades.

In 1994, Yale University School of Medicine announced that it had achieved success in a clinical study where thirteen patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease received fetal tissue implants. The tissue implanted consisted of dopaminergic cells that secrete growth factors important to the development and differentiation of dopamine neurons. The net result was reversal of the neurological defects caused by Parkinson’s disease, and Yale University’s trial was heralded as a success. Fetal tissue implantation has also been used to treat diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Addison’s diseases.