Image copyright Hannes Sjoblad Image caption The newly created cyborgs seem very happy to have been upgraded 
 
 Darkness had fallen over Stockholm as a group of eight people entered Swahili Bobs, a tattoo parlour in the dark alleys of Sodermalm. 
 
 By day there were tech entrepreneurs, students, web designers and IT consultants - but that night they were going to be transformed into cyborgs. 
 
 It may sound like the beginning of a science-fiction novel, but in fact it is a recollection of real events, by bio-hacker Hannes Sjoblad. 
 
 He organised the so-called implant party, which took place in late November and was one of several he has arranged. At it, eight volunteers were implanted with a small RFID (radio frequency identification) chip under the skin in their hand. Mr Sjoblad also has one. 
 
 He is starting small, aiming to get 100 volunteers signed up in the coming few months, with 50 people already implanted. But his vision is much bigger. 
 
 "Then will be a 1,000, then 10,000. I am convinced that this technology is here to stay and we will think it nothing strange to have an implant in their hand." 
 
 Image copyright Hannes Sjoblad Image caption All the implants are done by professional tattooists 
 
 He finds volunteers through social media and hacker communities in Sweden, people that are used to tinkering with technology. 
 
 Currently the chip acts as a simple security interface, allowing users to open their door without a key, although to do so they need to buy a new door lock, which are at the moment still expensive. 
 
 With a tweak to an Android phone, it can also unlock the device. 
 
 But there is potential beyond that. 
 
 "I believe we have just started discovering the things we can do with this," Mr Sjoblad says. 
 
 "There is huge potential for life-logging. 
 
 "With the fitness-tracking wearables at the moment, you have to type what you are eating, or where you are going. 
 
 "Instead of typing data into my phone, when I put it down and tap it with my implant it will know I am going to bed. 
 
 "Imagine sensors around a gym that recognises, for instance, who is holding a dumb-bell via the tag in your hand. 
 
 "There is an ongoing explosion in the internet of things - the sensors will be all around for me to be able to register my activity in relation to them." 
 
 Image copyright MC10 Image caption Digital tattoos take wearables to the next stage 
 
 Increasingly the lines between human and machine are blurring. People with missing limbs are routinely fitted with bionic ones, which are getting ever more sophisticated. People think nothing of getting an artificial hip or laser surgery to correct vision problems. 
 
 And last year, Google released contact lenses that can monitor glucose levels in an effort to provide better diagnostics for diabetes. 
 
 And of course wearables - from smart watches to gadgets such as Jawbone's Up or the Fitbit - are getting increasingly clever at monitoring a range of body functions from heart rate, calorie intake and sleep patterns. 
 
 But already firms are thinking beyond wearables. 
 
 BioStamp is a digital tattoo developed by US firm MC10. It can be stamped directly on to the body and collects data on body temperature, hydration levels, UV exposure and more. As with other wearables, the data can be uploaded 
 
 Meanwhile another US company, Proteus, has developed a pill with an embedded sensor that works in tandem with a patch worn on the skin and, when swallowed, measures a range of body functions. 
 
 "These kind of things are already here," says David Wood, head of the London Futurists. 
 
 "The real question is whether they can work better if they are on our skin or inside us, and one of the big advantages is that we can't forget them like we can a phone or a wristband." 
 
 He doesn't think implantable technology is ready for the mainstream quite yet, but he does think that the time is definitely ripe for a debate about it. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption When mass vaccination programs were introduced, there was suspicion about them 
 
 "Some people are horrified by this. They see it as completely crazy and have a deep unease about where technology is taking us and we have to be sensitive to people's feelings. 
 
 "Years ago there was fear over vaccinations and now it seems perfectly normal to have cells injected into us. That is an early example of bio-hacking" 
 
 Mr Sjoblad also hopes that his implant party will spark a conversation about our possible cyborg future. 
 
 "The idea is to become a community that is why they get implants done together," he says. 
 
 "People bond over the experience and start asking questions about what it means to be a man and machine. 
 
 "Curiosity is one of the biggest drivers for us humans. I come from a maker hacker culture and I just want to see what I can do with this." 
 
 For those who decide life as a cyborg isn't for them, the procedure Mr Sjoblad uses is reversible and takes just five minutes. 
 
 But he has no intention of removing his. 
 
 "We've been putting chips in animals for 20 years," he points out. 
 
 Now it is the turn of the humans. 
 
 "This is a fun thing, a conversation starter. It opens up interesting discussions about what it means to be human. This is not just for opening doors." ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The chip allows employees to open doors and use the photocopier without a traditional pass card 
 
 Want to gain entry to your office, get on a bus, or perhaps buy a sandwich? We're all getting used to swiping a card to do all these things. But at Epicenter, a new hi-tech office block in Sweden, they are trying a different approach - a chip under the skin. 
 
 Felicio de Costa, whose company is one of the tenants, arrives at the front door and holds his hand against it to gain entry. Inside he does the same thing to get into the office space he rents, and he can also wave his hand to operate the photocopier. 
 
 That's all because he has a tiny RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip, about the size of a grain of rice, implanted in his hand. Soon, others among the 700 people expected to occupy the complex will also be offered the chance to be chipped. Along with access to doors and photocopiers, they're promised further services in the longer run, including the ability to pay in the cafe with a touch of a hand. 
 
 On the day of the building's official opening, the developer's chief executive was, himself, chipped live on stage. And I decided that if was to get to grips with this technology, I had to bite the bullet - and get chipped too. 
 
 The whole process is being organised by a Swedish bio-hacking group which was profiled by my colleague Jane Wakefield recently. One of its members, a rather fearsome looking tattooist, inserted my chip. 
 
 First, he massaged the skin between my thumb and index finger and rubbed in some disinfectant. The he told me to take a deep breath while he inserted the chip. There was a moment of pain - not much worse than any injection - and then he stuck a plaster over my hand. 
 
 Before trying my chip out, I wanted to know more about the thinking behind it. Hannes Sjoblad, whose electronic business card is on his own chip and can be accessed with a swipe of a smartphone, has the title chief disruption officer at the development. I asked him whether people really wanted to get this intimate with technology. 
 
 "We already interact with technology all the time," he told me. "Today it's a bit messy - we need pin codes and passwords. Wouldn't it be easy to just touch with your hand? That's really intuitive." 
 
 When I tested my chip, I found that it was not all that intuitive - I had to twist my hand into an unnatural position to make the photocopier work. And while some of the people around the building were looking forward to being chipped, others were distinctly dubious. "Absolutely not," said one young man when I asked him if he'd sign up. An older woman was more positive about the potential of the technology but saw little point in being chipped just to get through a door. 
 
 But Hannes Sjoblad says he and the Swedish Biohacking Group have another objective - preparing us all for the day when others want to chip us. "We want to be able to understand this technology before big corporates and big government come to us and say everyone should get chipped - the tax authority chip, the Google or Facebook chip." Then, he says, we'll all be able to question the way the technology is implemented from a position of much greater knowledge. 
 
 I've returned to Britain with a slightly sore hand - and a chip still under my skin which has my contact details on it. Not that useful, but no doubt more sophisticated chips will soon replace wearable technology like fitness bands or payment devices, and we will get used to being augmented. All sorts of things are possible - whether it becomes culturally acceptable to insert technology beneath our skin is another matter. ||||| The small radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips are pushed under the skin in the hand, and can then be used to open doors or use the photocopier. 
 
 The chips have been offered to the 400 people that have signed up to the Epicenter hi-tech office block in Sweden. That now includes the BBC’s technology reporter Rory Cellan-Jones, who said that when a tattooist put it in there “was a moment of pain - not much worse than any injection - and then he stuck a plaster over my hand”. 
 
 Those behind the chips hope that they will eventually become common enough to be used to pay for sandwiches in the canteen, or even replace passwords and PINs to get into computers. They can also be programmed to hold contact information and communicate with smartphone apps. 
 
 All workers at the office are being offered to have the chips implanted. It is done by a Sweden-based biohacking group, which hopes that implanting the technology will lead people to think about how it might be used for even more dystopian purposes. 
 
 Hannes Sjoblad, who is chief disruption officer at the office development, told the BBC: “We want to be able to understand this technology before big corporates and big government come to us and say everyone should get chipped — the tax authority chip, the Google or Facebook chip." 
 
 Sjoblad has his electronic business card built into the chip, which others can then access using their smartphones. 
 
 The whole office will be internet-enabled — its building management will be run through Microsoft’s “internet of things” technology. That will tell facilities management when a plant needs watering or a meeting room needs emptying, all through connected appliances and sensors. 
 
 Epicenter is a “members-only workplace collective and innovation hub”, which promises to pioneer new ways of working. It has been built by Swedish property company AMF Fastigheter, and has members including Microsoft.
– Some Swedish workers can now enter their building without a key and make purchases at the office cafe sans card—with a chip implanted in their hand, the BBC reports. Epicenter, a new Swedish office block, is offering employees a miniscule RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip to provide various kinds of access. Not all are accepting it, but it's been offered to some 400 workers, the Independent reports. "We already interact with technology all the time," says bio-hacker Hannes Sjoblad, the "chief disruption officer" at the office block. "Today it's a bit messy—we need pin codes and passwords. Wouldn't it be easy to just touch with your hand? That's really intuitive." A BBC journalist had one inserted and said it wasn't too painful, but neither was it intuitive: His hand needed some twisting to activate an office photocopier. Yet Sjoblad and the Swedish Biohacking Group (which is behind the technology) sees this as just the beginning. They already hold chip-insertion parties at a Stockholm tattoo parlor, which the BBC depicts as part of a trend that's blending humans with technology—including smart watches, glucose-monitoring contact lenses, and the digital BioStamp tattoo that collects data on a person's health. "Some people are horrified by this," admits one advocate. But "years ago there was fear over vaccinations and now it seems perfectly normal to have cells injected into us. That is an early example of bio-hacking." (In development: A birth control chip that could last 16 years.)