The B-movie sci-fi future is here

News headline that makes me believe I am living in a B science fiction movie:

British scientist warns we must protect the vulnerable from robots

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'Star Trek' warps nanotech news

'Star Trek' warps nanotech news

This report from a Canadian TV station rates a Star Trek NanoWarp Factor of 4 (in a scale I just invented based on the number of times "Star Trek" is mentioned in a single nanotech news story).

The video alongside the news story does not mention "Star Trek" even once, which means one of their news writers decided that Web readers will understand the story better if they sprinkled in a few "Star Trek" references. It's an annoying distraction, since as TV news stories go it actually does a competent job of outlining the hopes and fears of nanotech.

As a former TV Web writer for WDIV Local 4 in Detroit, I understand the attempt to make a connection with the reader. But somebody should inform the writer that the Web no longer appeals only to "Star Trek" geeks, and has not for a number of years.

In fact, if you haven't noticed, local TV news audiences are disappearing. And you know where all your viewers are now? They're getting their news on the Web, where they can find in-depth, substantive stories.

Oh, and this blog post rates a Star Trek NanoWarp Factor of 5.

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NanoBots control the horizontal and vertical
NanoBots are Needed

Truth is stranger than prediction

This is why you should never post anything on a blog at 3:31 a.m., no matter how much sense you think you make at the time ...

So, government bans are bad, yet drive innovation, so they are good. A scientific opinion is fact if enough of the culture believes it to be so ... until the belief falls out of fashion or is dropped out of sheer boredom ... A police state is peace, British Petroleum is green, left and right each support fascism (left in Iraq, right in the U.S.), the environment can be cleaned up through bumper stickers and rock concerts, and we all lived with Fred Flintstone and Dino just a few thousand years ago, sunscreen is dangerous nanotech while molecular manufacturing is impossible, therefore safe ...

I mean, you just can't make this shit up. Stranger than fiction. Welcome to the future, my friends. More here

I love my responsible friends at the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology. And friends don't let friends contemplate their own belly buttons for too long.

The truth is, most science fiction -- even in the "golden age" (a time period usually defined by whenever the reader was a lonely teenager with no friends holed up in his room reading SciFi to escape real life) becomes caricature over time, since the future is never really "one thing."

"Predictions" of early 21st century life from the vantage of the last century all appear to me to be cartoonish, since it is ridiculous that we should become "a society of ..." fill in the blank. Instead, life goes on much the same, as our toys become more sophisticated. Almost all pictured either a new fascism arising out of those who control the new technology, or some kind of dull "Star Trekkian" egalitarian society somehow free of bigotry, superstition, hate and humanness.

Even the oft-cited "1984" in the end seems cartoonish to me today, despite the fact that any form of government control or monitoring of anything at all turns "Orwellian" in the exaggerated pen of lazy writers who feel they can just use the catch-all "Big Brother" epithet to end all debate.

I would find the whole lament over lack of decent science fiction pretty funny, except there's a slight edge of truth to the claim that SciFi influences the direction the future will take. I'd go a step further and say that it influences the present, since all one has to do is bring up the specter of an exaggerated, imagined dystopia to get some segments of the public all riled up against any technology.

Why, even sunscreen can be a harbinger of an Orwellian future. "Friends of the Earth" (the group's own self-appointed designation), in its just released Anti-Nano-Sunscreen Manifesto (pdf), very correctly, and I might say responsibly, includes the fine print that the "jury is still out on how readily and how deeply nanoparticles penetrate skin." So far so good. Then it goes on to mention food packaging. Yes, good. Very real. Then, uh-oh ... we're off in Asimov-land:

"And the technology could potentially further affect our lives – from crippling our security and privacy with the creation of never-before-seen weapons and surveillance systems to altering the fabric of the clothes we wear and creating batteries from viruses constructed at the nano-scale. ..."

Heeelllpp!!! Run for the hills!!!! The nano-virus batteries in our suntan lotion and stain-free nanopants are altering my DNA and turning me into a DARPA robot!!!!

I love escapist science fiction. But. Nahh. We really don't need any more SciFi influencing current debates. Like I wrote at 3:31 a.m. to my friends at CRN. Just take a look at the bizarre events swirling around technology in real life.

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Irresponsible NanoHype

NanoFiction and my guilty pleasure (audio link)

I've mentioned before that audiobooks are among my guilty pleasures. I read and write for a living, so by the time I'm ready to relax with some recreational reading, my eyes are shot. Audiobooks (I subscribe to Audible.com) also come in handy in traffic jams, long road trips and especially as a form of escape while doing mundane household chores.

So, I'm "reading" the second book in a series of film noir-esque sci-fi thrillers written by Richard K. Morgan and featuring a futuristic Sam Spade named Takeshi Kovacs.

Anyway, if you're like me and want true escape in your escapist fiction, I recommend the trilogy: Altered Carbon,Broken Angels and Woken Furies.

Nanotech, of course, plays a role in this world in which consciousness can be uploaded and downloaded into different bodies ("sleeves," in Morgan's world).

Listen to the excerpt below from "Broken Angels." Pardon the quality, but the audio traveled yesterday from my car speakers to my cell phone, up do Odeo, over to Blogger, then out to you.

Oh, and there are some bad words said, so it might not be work- or kid-friendly. Hit the button below at your own risk. Enjoy.

Update: Just discovered that you need to have an account with Odeo to listen to the audio. It's free to sign up. Sorry about that, though. Had I known that they force you to sign up, I would not have used the service. Maybe they know that, and that's why there's no mention of it on the site.

powered by ODEO

Nanobots 'Lost' in 'The Dark Tower'

The makers of ABC's "Lost" have "laughed off the idea that the monster is just a cloud nanobot," according to news reports. Hmm. Sure looked like one to me (althought the only nanobot swarm I have ever "seen" was on the cover of Michael Crichton's "Prey").

Apparently, the writers of "Lost" also pen comic books. And, coming soon, Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series discovers there are other worlds than books and will appear in Marvel Comics.

The connection? I'm getting to it.

The plotline and characters in "Lost" are eerily similar to those in the "Dark Tower."

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Secret nanotech research 'Lost' in flight
'Lost' in nanobot space
From the Dark Tower of my memory

Secret nanotech research 'Lost' in flight

Is the black smoke on "Lost" a nanobot swarm? Well, the mystery deepens with the revelation that a leading nanotechnology researcher was aboard the flight from Sydney that never made it to Los Angeles. I discovered this on a fan site for Drive Shaft, the washed-up British pop band featuring brothers Liam and Charlie. The band was about to stage a comeback when Charlie disappeared on that mysterious Oceanic Airlines flight.

So, is this a real clue? Or is it a red herring planted by ABC?

Do you remember Flight 815, the plane that mysteriously disappeared on its way from Sydney to LA? In seat 23-C sat Harold Wollstein, who was poised to lead the next wave of digital technology. The man that would make a watch-sized blackberry a thing of the present joined the fate of the other 400+ passengers.

We don't know what happened to Harold any more than we know what happened to his research. Word in Silicone Valley is that all of Harold's research was in his laptop on board the plane, headed to an important meeting with the CEOs of the companies leading the nano-technology revolution. But the truth may never be discovered, about the crash or about Harold's top secret work. More here

Well, at the very least we know this must be fiction. You'd think that a brilliant nanotech scientist like "Harold" would have backed up his files somewhere.

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'Lost' in nanobot space

Nano submarine crew saves scientist's life!

A super-top secret military project, the Combined Miniature Deterrent Force, succeeded in sending a nanosize submarine crew into a top scientist's bloodstream. After battling anti-bodies and an evil doctor working for the "other side," the crew returned safely through the tear duct.

  

     
The crew, of course, brought along Raquel Welch.

'Lost' in nanobot space

A few months ago, while making frequent flights to California, I found myself hooked on ABC's "Lost," which I downloaded via iTunes and used them to pass the time on cross-country flights (yes, I watched Episode 1 while on a plane. Yikes!)

So, imagine my pleasant surprise when my worlds collided a few episodes ago, and what looked like a nanobot swarm made itself known to one of the bad-ass castaways. Click on the picture above to see the clip for yourself.

Word on the Web is that it's the nanobots that are responsible for making the paralyzed walk and other island "miracles." I've been refraining from reading all the details because I really hate spoilers. I think more will be revealed this Wednesday. For those who do want to read more, I'll provide a few links below.

Island of intrigue
The Transmission: Lost Podcast
Another message board here (bad language used)
Fire+Water Addendum
Bullpucky: The Lost Report

... and blah blah blah ... Let's watch the show, and report back here afterward to tell me whether it sets back real nanotechnology, is scientifically implausible, echoes some real conspiracy theories you've been working on ... or whatever ...

Cranky Crichton hasn't a Hollywood 'Prey'er

In a convergence of coincidences that can only be described as quantum kabbalistic, I found myself on a surprise flight to Los Angeles on Friday (more on that later).

Seated next to me on my return trip to Detroit was a person I will only call a "Hollywood insider" (I've always wanted to write that!) I told him I would go to jail rather than reveal him as my source, so you'll have to trust me that this is a true insider who would know the answer to the following question:

Is there or is there not a movie version of Michael Crichton's nano nightmare book "Prey" in production?

The answer is "no."

So, as I've written before (scroll to the end here), everybody in the nano business can just calm down for a while and let's give the "movie version of 'Prey' is coming soon" stuff a rest.

In fact, said my extra-super-double-secret Hollywood insider source, Crichton is quite a cranky character who was not at all pleased with the film treatment of "Timeline."

Even during summer blogging recess, your NanoBot is still working for you. Stay tuned for more news.

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What, Prey tell, are you talking about?
'Swarm,' 'Prey,' whatever ...
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