Adventures In Writing

Why I Love Science!

Two articles caught my eye (yep, pun intended) and moved me (yep, another) to investigate further.

The first is about a new bionic contact lens that can be worn and will interface with computers, iPODS, and wireless networks. Virtual reality just got a lot closer.

Not only that, but the eye is the gateway to a lot of knowledge that's going on inside the human body. The biometric reading possibility alone is staggering.

I've talked to people a lot about the way wireless internets and cell phones have already thrust people into living dual-input lives. Rarely do you make a phone call these days when you or the person you're on the phone with isn't on the internet (and yep, they were on the television with the MUTE button employed before that, but television was a passive medium where the internet is interactive).

Can you imagine what it's going to be like to "see" an alternate reality to the real one around you at the same time? The possibilities are staggering. Of course, email spam will cloud your vision, and will it be long before someone figures out a way to rewire your neural network through your new lenses?

And suppose you don't have to get drunk in order for the person you're with to suddenly get better looking? Suppose you can have your new bionic lenses simply "edit" him/her into perfection?

And forget rose-colored glasses. These new contacts could change your view on the world.

This is the way a writer's mind works.

So far, I haven't seen a price tag mentioned on the contacts, but I bet they're not disposable.

Yet.

Read more here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22731631/wid/11915829?gt1=10841.



Also, scientists think they've solved the problem of powering nanobots around the human body. They're going to base the propulsion system on the same one used by sperm.

Sperm moves at 7 inches per hour, which is the same as a full-grown man swimming 3.7 miles in the same hour -- better than any record now standing. Also, since the nanobots are injectable, they can get anywhere in a hurry to deliver medicines and enzymes.

Read more about it here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22333518/wid/11915829/

The future is upon us and things are a lot stranger than any of the SF I read as a kid.