in the future we'll all have adamantium skeletons and superconductive neurons
I read a lot of science news, especially related to energy and transportation. There's a lot of stuff there that I don't really understand. I get the gist, usually, or at least the motivation of the new technology or new research, but I often don't understand the methods or the science behind the ideas. It's okay. I'm a high-level understanding kind of person.
Mostly the articles are sort of mundane--incremental improvements in existing technology ("New biofuel reduces emissions by 10%!") or some new factoid or data of climate change or something like that. Occasionally, though, something just freaks me the hell out.
Today I read this article.
My takeaway is that they're making cyborg leaves in order to harvest the sunlight and turn it into hydrogen. Or electricity or something. They're taking actual plant leaves and embedding metals in them to do this. Like Wolverine, except not a killing machine.
I don't know why this seems particularly bizarre to me. I'm not a Luddite--I doubt most people can really stay in science if they are. And we're all the time taking plants and animals and killing them and turning them into something else (firewood, food, glue, ad nauseum) so it shouldn't be a reaction against the "rape of nature" or some other such false-moral grandstanding (I call it false because, let's be honest: I had a bratwurst for lunch and am wearing leather shoes, so why get upset about a leaf?)
There's something more here, though, and I haven't quite found it. I think it has to do with harnessing the leaf while it's still alive, like a parasite. Have you ever heard about the wasps that lay eggs inside living ants and the ants basically turn into zombies that then die when the eggs are ready to hatch? Freaks me the hell out.
But that's what viruses are. That's what we do (did) with horse-pulled plows and pack donkeys, etc. It's no different.
So why the squeamishness?
Mostly the articles are sort of mundane--incremental improvements in existing technology ("New biofuel reduces emissions by 10%!") or some new factoid or data of climate change or something like that. Occasionally, though, something just freaks me the hell out.
Today I read this article.
My takeaway is that they're making cyborg leaves in order to harvest the sunlight and turn it into hydrogen. Or electricity or something. They're taking actual plant leaves and embedding metals in them to do this. Like Wolverine, except not a killing machine.
I don't know why this seems particularly bizarre to me. I'm not a Luddite--I doubt most people can really stay in science if they are. And we're all the time taking plants and animals and killing them and turning them into something else (firewood, food, glue, ad nauseum) so it shouldn't be a reaction against the "rape of nature" or some other such false-moral grandstanding (I call it false because, let's be honest: I had a bratwurst for lunch and am wearing leather shoes, so why get upset about a leaf?)
There's something more here, though, and I haven't quite found it. I think it has to do with harnessing the leaf while it's still alive, like a parasite. Have you ever heard about the wasps that lay eggs inside living ants and the ants basically turn into zombies that then die when the eggs are ready to hatch? Freaks me the hell out.
But that's what viruses are. That's what we do (did) with horse-pulled plows and pack donkeys, etc. It's no different.
So why the squeamishness?
random bits cobbled together by j-dub
4 Comments:
The whole things seems sort of mean. Did the leaves give their consent to be embedded with metal? I suspect not. I suspect the leaves want none of it.
I envision from your headline a future full of short-tempered Wolverines extending their claws at the slightest provocation on crowded streets, subways, ticket lines, etc.
some lab somewhere inserted the jellyfish gene for phosphorescence into mice. I believe they got mice that glowed green under UV light, or something like that.
Or did I read that in a novel? It's getting harder to tell these days.
and I don't think the mice got to give their consent, either.
Post a Comment
<< Home