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"As the rate of technological development speeds up, the gap between science fiction and what we’re living now is getting narrower all the time."
- Richard Morgan
 |
| Neoterics | ||
| Pure engineering genius on tap. |
James Kidder, as the author says, was quite a guy. He pretty much invented everything useful. For Kidder, ninety-nine percent perspiration (like Edison) was not enough.
| This, then, was the answer to his problem. He couldn't speed up mankind's intellectual advancement enough to have it teach him the things his incredible mind yearned for. he couldn't speed himself up. So he created a new race - a race which would develop and evolve so fast that it would surpass the civilization of man; and from them he would learn. They were completely in Kidder's power. Earth's normal atmosphere would poison them, as he took care to demonstrate to every fourth generation... They would make ... their little trial and error experiments hundreds of times faster than man.. He called them Neoterics and teased them into working for him. |
| From Microcosmic God,
by Theodore Sturgeon. Published by Galaxy in 1941 Additional resources -
|
In the story, Kidder puts the Neoterics into life-and-death situations to force them to invent what he needed. The Neoterics were imprisoned in a shatterproof, chemical-proof sealed bubble. When Kidder needed to develop stronger alloys, he arranged for them to have only lighter metals and then started dropping the ceiling on their containment bin one millimeter per day. Only by inventing new alloys and structures could they save themselves from being crushed to death. And they did it!
I was thinking about this one at the Michigan State Fair the other day. My family was looking at the exhibit for honey, with a live bee display. Handy creatures, bees; they work hard all the time and make a unique and useful product.
What if you could have a tiny hive full of creatures who could make something other than honey? What could be sweeter than brilliant ideas?
Compare to the miniature universes from Fessenden's World (1937) by Edmond Hamilton.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Microcosmic God
More Ideas
and Technology by Theodore Sturgeon
Tech news articles related to Microcosmic God
Tech news articles related to works by Theodore Sturgeon
Neoterics-related
news articles:
- E. Coli Forced To Evolve: Old Bacterium Learns New Trick
- Bacteria Torture Tests Demonstrate Evolution
- 'Evolution Chip' Automates Evolved Change
- Phage-Assisted Continuous Evolution
| AI Robots Excel At Trash Sorting And Recycling |
| Dall-E 2 Creates Art To Order |
| Do AIs Create Their Own Language? |
| Google Engineer Convinced LaMDA Chatbot Is Sentient, Is Sent Home |
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'the registration number which the traffic control automatically photographed as she left the controlway...'
'It could maintain a steady six miles per hour...'
'Then they press one of these here thirteen buttons...'
'...without burning a single hydrocarbon molecule to injure the diseased atmosphere any further.'
'Bird-like robots now descended from the ceiling of the theatre...'
'The efficient robot waiter of the Sky Club had cleared away the remnants of an epicurean meal.'
'...in the tank the new body and the new mind and memory and life has taken almost instant form.'
'pirate three-vee satellites sanded out of orbit...'
'The atmosphere yielded its moisture with reluctance. It had to be coaxed down...'
