I've been sick for the last week, I'm guessing it's the flu because it knocked me on my bum like a semi-truck. I couldn't go in to see my advisor so he could get me cleared for the fall term classes which get filled pretty quickly. I also missed out on my classes which aren't really that serious, I can catch up any time I wish it's not too difficult, but it is getting close to finals week so I feel a bit of the pressure. However the largest problem that my illness has caused me is not being able to write much of anything. Which I hope to compensate for in the following week. Instead of doing all these things I've been sleeping on my couch, watching television and pumping my body full of vitamin c and medicine.
However I was still able to learn about the recent discovery that was made in the field of science, and as a writer of more or less science fiction-y stories I'm always on the look for promising discoveries that are great news for the real world that I can bastardize into horrible nightmares for readers to enjoy.
This story is one I stumbled upon while (you guessed it) clicking the stumble button. It's from The Guardian and can be found here (I can't work the link making button for some reason, so bare with me):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form
The story is extremely interesting because these guys are basically the real life Frankensteins. Sure it's just a bacteria, but this is just the first step into a new world of strangeness. Hopefully without the neckbolts.
I'm not a scientist by any sense of the word (I studied cork cells in high school biology but that's pretty much it). So I'm not really a credible source for the actual outcome of this discovery, but as a writer I'd like to at least view the possibilities.
The first possibility is that with mankind capable of building and designing lifeforms that we might see the beginning of a new era in prostitution. The sci-fi sit-com "Red Dwarf" had creatures called GELFS (Genetically Engineered Life Form) that are what their name suggests. There were some that were meant for pleasure and could change their form into whatever you desired (even if it was yourself). Sometime, in the future, we could see an era where lonely men and women could purchase their own pleasure GELF. And who wouldn't? Honestly if you could have something that could change into whoever you wanted (like the extremely talented actress Megan Fox) why bother going and playing the field? This would also mean the end of humanity as we know it but at least lonely geeks could finally get Megan Fox (or at least a thing that looks like her).
The second possibility is that Avatards (die-hard fans of the film Avatar) could finally build the world of Pandora. No more suicidal viewers when the world you wish you could live in can actually be engineered. Geeks will rejoice while James Cameron makes off with even more of our money. But I guess everybody wins still.
Speaking more seriously now, another possibility is one that most people who are eco-friendly or "Green" as the media calls it (or "those annoying f***ers" whatever floats your boat) will love. Lifeforms that can be eco-friendly and provide a comfortable form of living for people. Lights that use phosphorescence instead of electricity that are also trees that take in CO2 and make oxygen. Or perhaps some sort of structure that serves as both an office building and absorbs sunlight to provide power and warmth (or whatever you want it to be). How about goats that eat tin cans and poop out tofu? Sure it sounds like a joke (and to be honest it is a joke) but it's just speculation.
The future is a strange place, and the proof is in the strange crap these scientists make and discover.
(Me, honestly, I'd like a talking dog. Or maybe a super smart dog like in Dean Koontz's "Watchers" but that's more genetic manipulation than full blown engineering. A talking dog would be cool, I'd teach him how to order pizza for me and make him be my wingman when I go to bars or something. But then I'd have to pretend to be blind because the bar never lets animals in. That wouldn't go over well when the ladies realize I'm just faking, but they'd love my talking dog so it'd be ok. I think... perhaps I need to think this through more...)
Anyways, yeah this science is ripe for the plucking fiction wise. Heck most of the suggestions I made would be great bases for a story (but then anything is really, you just need some interesting turns and twists).
In other news I did hear that the Lost season 6 DVD would have an extended epilogue about Hurley and Ben, do I smell the workings of a spin-off? Probably not, but it's cool that they're addressing this very noticeable gap in the mythology.
Now, I've got to get to work on the late work I built up from being sick.
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