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"Beyond a thousand years from now humans are not quite recognizably human, and I have trouble finding characters."
- Larry Niven
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| Synthetic Life | ||
| Living animals made from scratch using inorganic elements. |
This is a very early description of the creation of life from entirely inorganic basic elements.
| "We have produced synthetic life in that laboratory upstairs.”
He rang for a servant and issued some instructions to him in a low voice. The man disappeared and returned several minutes later with a small portable cage containing a large healthy rabbit. Graham opened the cage and took out the bunny by his ears, and handed him to me. “That rabbit was never born, Von. It has no ancestors. Atom by atom, molecule by molecule, we built up chemically from carbon, hydrogen, oxyygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, calcium and other elements the five or six microscopic cells that finally developed into that rabbit. We made him from inorganic gases, liquids, and solids, and he lives...” The rabbit developed to maturity in astonishingly short time. In three hours he was full grown, for we provided him with food enough. First we nourished him with injected carbohydrates made up of suitable organic compounds, then later we fed him in the usual way. lie grew before our eyes. Metabolism proceeded at an unprecedented rate, a rate that I should never have believed possible if I had not seen it. The eight of us were astounded by the thing. In the three most exciting hours of my life that thing grew from a microscopic artificially manufactured egg to a full-grown rabbit. Then the hectic rush ceased. Since then he's been a perfectly normal rabbit, particularly well-behaved. . . . |
| Technovelgy from Synthetic,
by Charles Cloukey. Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
This is different from the process used in novels like Mary Shelley's 1819 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, which seeks to impart life to a full-size created humanoid form.
Compare to synthetic babies from A Biological Experiment (1928) by David H. Keller.
See also intelligent micro-life from The Immortality Seekers (1937) by John W. Campbell and the intellectual cell from Blood Music (1984) by Greg Bear.
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