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"Looking back through history, I see no evidence for humanity making the best of things, and I think it's a pretty safe bet that's an on-going trend."
- 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. |
| Technovelgy 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
| Chinese Tokamak Uses AI To Keep Fusion Plasma Stable |
| Alexa+ And Its AI Brain Improvements |
| Are AIs Going Rogue Like Hal 9000 |
| Should AIs and AI Robots Demand Rights? |
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'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
