What is it like to play with technology? A magician from Missouri recently experienced it firsthand: he implanted a microcomputer chip in his hand, originally to perform cooler magic tricks, but ended up—forgetting! The! Password!

That’s right, this is not a science fiction story or a joke, but a true event.

Implanted Chip, Intended for Magic, Resulted in…

The magician’s name is Zi Teng Wang, who is actually a molecular biologist by profession. Ironically, when he shared this incident on Facebook, he also posted an X-ray image of his hand—showing the chip clearly embedded in the flesh between his thumb and index finger.

Wang humorously remarked:

“I now live like a character from a cyberpunk story, locked out by the technology inside me; I totally deserve this.”

The implanted chip was a “little experiment” he conducted years ago for the sake of magic. The audience only needed to bring an RFID-enabled phone close to his hand to trigger a special magic effect. Sounds cool, right?

But reality is often more bizarre than fantasy.

Wang quickly discovered:— Different phones have varying RFID area locations— Audience members often disable this feature on their phones— The magic performance turned into an awkward game of “move a little to the left… now a little to the right…” for positioning

The magic effect vanished instantly.

Changing the Chip to a “Bitcoin Address” Didn’t Work Either…

Later, he simply rewrote the chip to a Bitcoin address, linking it to a meme image on Imgur, amusing himself.

But years later, the Imgur link became inactive, and when he tried to rewrite the content, he found—

❌ the password. Forgotten.

And it was the write-protect password he set years ago.

As a result: this so-called “cyberpunk magician” is now sealed by the chip inside his own body.

Want to Crack It? The Solution from a Friend is Even More Absurd

A tech-savvy friend told him:

“The only way is to strap an RFID reader to your hand and continuously scan for days to weeks, using brute force to crack it.”

In other words, he would have to wear a device continuously swiping his hand until he guessed the correct password.

Thus, this uncontrollable chip remains semi-permanently in his hand.

The good news is: ❗ The Imgur link suddenly became active again

The bad news is: ❗ He still doesn’t know the chip’s password ❗ He still cannot modify it ❗ He remains locked out of the technology within his own body

Wang helplessly concluded:

“It’s very inconvenient, but also quite funny.”

This Isn’t the First Time Someone Has “Implanted Technology and Forgotten the Password”

In 2018, former Vice reporter Daniel Oberhaus also implanted an NFC chip while drunk. Upon waking up, he found:

👉 Forgot the password👉 Chip write protection👉 Completely unusable

He claimed to have become “the world’s most useless cyborg.”

Fortunately, he eventually spent hours sifting through technical documentation to recover the password.

His experience summary is very realistic:

“If you want to implant an NFC chip, one word—don’t get drunk.”

The Hidden Concerns Behind the Joke: Invasive Technology is a Double-Edged Sword

As institutions like Musk’s Neuralink push brain-computer interfaces closer to the public, these anecdotes about “implantable technology” serve as a reminder:

• Companies may go bankrupt

• Devices may fail

• Technology may stop being updated

• Links may become inactive

• You might forget the password

But they are all inside your body.

This is the true essence of cyberpunk.