Loftwings and Demons

So this is an idle idea I may or may not expand on later, but I just wanted to get it down.  So, humans are very much not the only tool users on the planet.  There's actually a whole bunch of species that use tools, such as the great apes we are descended from, certain species of birds (eg. New Caledonian crows), and octopi, to name just a few examples.

Nevertheless, there's no mistaking the fact that humans do operate differently than other animals.  Perhaps we are capable of greater levels of abstraction.  We could say that we make more different types of tools.  But both of those sound kind of dry.  What if the way we describe our approach to the world is to say that we are adaptational bio-hackers?  Doesn't that sound cooler (yes, this is the primary reason I have chosen this term)?

Here's what I mean.  Our tools allow us to extend our abilities to do things that most animals would need to wait for genetic evolution to be able to do.  Let's start with things that are obviously biological changes, but perhaps aren't often thought of as bio-hacking.  Let's start with drugs.  Humans use drugs for both recreational and medicinal purposes, and have been doing so for millennia.  This changes the way our minds and bodies work, so it is indisputably biohacking.   What else?  Well, we can learn skills and habits through cultural transmission.  That's also biohacking.  Whether you're learning hand-to-hand combat or how to identify safe plants to eat or how to repair a broken computer, you're changing your abilities in ways that allow you to better adapt to your environment.  Surgery of any type also qualifies as a type of bio-hacking.  Attaching any kind of prothesis is biohacking, such as a prosthetic hand or leg.  Attaching a hook to replace a lost hand would be bio-hacking.  I'll note that other animals use recreational drugs on their own too, and possibly medicinal, but would need to forage for these  or be given them since they can't mass-produce them like we do  (which is done through agriculture, yet another instance of bio-hacking).  They also can learn skills and habits through cultural transmission if they are from a social species.  But they have difficulty learning that information if no individuals who know it still exist.  However, humans can record our thoughts using written language or pictures, extending our ability to communicate to other humans across vast gulfs of time and space.  Which is a form of bio-hacking, since it extends our biological abilities to communicate.  

Fake teeth because your real teeth fell out or didn't grow in?  Also biohacking.  Weapons to attack or fend off attackers like guns, spears, bows and arrow, etc? That's biohacking one's 'teeth and claws'.  Wearing clothes, makeup, tattoos, or piercings?  Biohacking one's bodily appearance and capabilities.  For example, we use different clothing not only to change our appearance, but also to adapt to different environments such as cold, heat, rain, sun, and even the vacuum of space.

Anyway, I want to consider this idea further to see if I can expand on it, but that's where I'm at with it for now.