Death of a Biohacker - The New York Times
‘Shame and Emotional Distress’
The stunt in Austin set off a mutiny. Tristan Roberts and the others who had been working as contractors for Ascendance in the lead-up to the October and February injections met in Jacksonville, Fla. There, they confronted Mr. Traywick for exaggerating Ascendance’s accomplishments and for not paying them what he had promised.
They were also frustrated to discover that he had invited several film crews to Jacksonville to witness Mr. Roberts take another round of experimental H.I.V. therapy. But Mr. Roberts knew the compound wasn’t ready, and wouldn’t inject it.
A confrontation unfolded between the collaborators, some of which was caught by a camera crew from Vice. Mr. Traywick seized the key to the Jacksonville laboratory and had the locks changed. Most of the team left Florida dispirited. Mr. Roberts said that he would not work with Aaron again after that. Mr. Traywick told a journalist at Gizmodo, Kristen V. Brown, who reported on the fight, that he had fired his collaborators. “I love those guys and I want us to move forward together, and they have made it very difficult,” he told her. The other biohackers told her they had quit.
A month later, Mr. Traywick filed suit in federal court. Acting as his own lawyer, he said that Mr. Zayner’s Facebook post and Ms. Brown’s article had profoundly impacted his personal and professional life and his business interests. He said they had caused him and his company to suffer significant harm, “including financial losses, damage to their reputation, humiliation, embarrassment, mental suffering, shame and emotional distress.”
“These damages are ongoing in nature and will continue to be suffered in the future,” the lawsuit said.
It was dismissed on April 23. Six days later, Mr. Traywick’s body was found.
‘Death Is Wrong’
“Aaron left a trail of destruction as he burned one bridge after the next,” Ms. Rogers, his adoptive cousin, said.
He was “a troubled person and I didn’t realize the depths of it,” Mr. Roberts said. “I wish I had been more empathetic.”
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“We knew he had some mental issues going on,” Rita Traywick said. “His biological family had some issues going on.”
David Ishee, who first became interested in genetic manipulation because he breeds dogs, said that Mr. Traywick’s approach to biohacking was off the rails.
“A lot of people want to go fast,” he said. “Everybody who’s new thinks they’re going to have a pet dragon in six weeks. But biology beats you down and you realize, O.K., this is going to take way longer than I expect. I just wanted to make dogs glow, and it’s taken years.”
Mr. Traywick left a mixed legacy. But his career in biohacking stands as a symbol of the unrealized goals of the community to which he briefly belonged. Shortly after his death, the United States Transhumanist Party, Mr. Stolyarov’s organization, issued a statement.
“Regardless of the cause, the U.S. Transhumanist Party emphasizes that death is wrong,” it said. “Mr. Traywick’s death is deeply wrong and will remain so. He will be missed by all of us. May his vision live on.”