Good question.
For me, implants are all about functionality. So maybe I can tell you what I do with the implants I currently have, and what I plan on doing with the ones I’ll implant in two months, so you have a few use cases to argue your own case:
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Glass M1k (not DT, but equivalent to a xM1) in my left hand: unlocks my front door, unlocks my tool shed in the garden, unlocks my locker at work, logs me into my home computer.
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xEM in my left hand (configured as an Indala 224 bits): lets me in the building at work.
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EM4305 in my right hand: opens my car - soon will start the car too, when I get around to busting the security bolt that holds the ignition cylinder
, lets me in my company’s corporate office building in Belgium (can’t show you that, the site is sensitive)… Used to let me in my previous company’s office building. -
xEM in my right foot: logs in into my work computer. Soon will open the door of the warehouse at work (useful when my hands are full of boxes) and will open my minivan’s back doors with a reader under the bumper (same thing, for when I hands are full of groceries).
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xBT in my chest: simpler and faster way to take my temperature. It’s also the test bed for a sports and medical product I’m developing (battery powered reader that samples the wearer’s body temperature continuously and correlates it with heartrate, power and such). Marginally useful if I’m ever lost and I can’t remember my name as I registered myself on a few lost pets databases for shits and giggles
Unlikely, but who knows…
As for the 3 upcoming implants I don’t have yet:
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FlexM1 in my right hand: will be a bit easier to trigger the Yale Doorman locks on my front door and shed. The glass implant works, but it’s a bit finicky. Also, I’m hoping it’ll wake up this door handle product which I’m interested in installing on my office door and on the bike shed’s door at work.
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FlexEM in my back: will turn on the TV and the ambient light when I slump in my sofa (reader in the cushion) and turn them off when I get in bed (reader in the mattress). Pure laziness function here
Also will log me into my work computer (reader in the back of my office chair). -
FlexNExT in my right wrist: will be used to share data with people with some decorum (blinkies). Pure show-off function here, but if the implant proves resilient long-term, I’m considering tattooing a prominent NFC logo on top of it - maybe with some kind of “scan here” text or logo - to get an ER crew to scan it and get my medical details if I’m ever in an accident and I’m unconscious. Also, I’m hoping to turn it into a funky body-worn “data terminal” of sorts, that blinks out the time, alerts and short messages in Morse code, with a computer-controlled induction coil worn under my wrist.
Finally - and that’s important for me - the implants let me explore new ideas to interface with electronics and give me a good excuse to hack things around, which I love doing.
Crucially, I still look like a perfectly normal and sane individual, and what I do doesn’t offend or annoy anybody. So ultimately, after I’m done explaining how my implants are useful to me and bring me fun, if someone still doesn’t see the point, what I choose to put under my skin with my own money to do what I want is my own affair.
I hope the above will give you a few arguments to discuss with your family.