In his breakthrough novel Rendevous With Rama, Sir Arthur C. Clarke invented the word biot. It described robots generated by the automated alien starship called Rama by humanity which, unlike human machinery, were made up entirely of biological chemicals engineered to function in simplistic ways which allowed the robots to do amazingly sophisticated things with a very small amount of physical presence. (For a really amazing fan "trailer" for a Rendezvous With Rama movie, click here.)As our lifespeeds hurl us into a future where information, technology, biology and humanity are rapidly merging into a single heterogenous whole, the concept of the biot has taken on a whole new meaning to me. We used to speak of "cybernetic humans" like the "bionic man", who were largely living tissue with mechanical enhancements. The reverse was the "cyborg", a largely mechanical form with a small amount of living elements (the "Borg" of Star Trek are based on this concept of course). These were viewed as the only two models available for the merging of man and machine, of biology and information technology. We are rapidly learning otherwise.
Whether it is based on prosthetic replacement limbs that are now truly more powerful and sensitive than the originals they imitate, or whether it is a true three dimensional simulator (no
glasses required!) so realistic the viewers dodge oncoming objects by reflex, our ability to not only duplicate the biological world of our bodies but surpass it is no longer science fiction. And we are finding combinations and synergies our limited visions of the past could never encompass.This blog is dedicated to keeping you, its gentle readers, up to speed on the changes in the zero-point-energy driven spin-wash convergence cycle of modern techno-cyber-life that will toss you and your children into places and cause you to do things of which even now we cannot dream.
Welcome to the future! It arrived yesterday. (Images courtesy of Wikipedia and CYBORG FANTASIES.)
