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"I've been very obsessive about writing science fiction for far too many years. Anyone with an ounce of sense would have given up years ago."
- Charles Stross
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| Head Cheese | ||
| Intelligent paste made of neurons; spread upon a substrate for computing. |
Pilot Joel Kita wasn't very happy about being replaced.
| The Pacific Ocean slopped two kilometers under his feet. He had a cargo of blank-eyed psychotics sitting behind him. And the lifter was being piloted by a large pizza with extra cheese...
Ray had been in this very cockpit, watching the pizza being installed and no doubt wondering when the term "job security" had become an oxymoron... The techs were playing with a square vanilla box, half a meter on a side and about twice as thick as Kita's wrist. Humans had always been able to integrate 3-D spatial information better than the machines that kept trying to replace them... Until now, apparently... "It's one of those smart gels," Ray said at last... "Head cheese. Cultured brains on a slab. The same things they've been plugging into the Net to firewall infections." |
| Technovelgy from Starfish,
by Peter Watts. Published by Tor Books in 1999 Additional resources -
|
Be sure to see the Science Fiction in the News story Rat Neurons In A Dish Play Flight Simulator for an amazing real-life confirmation.
The term "smart gel" is already in use; it refers to a class of liquids that have unusual properties in response to being compressed. Since smart gels expand or contract in response to external stimuli, they could be useful in applications such as an artificial pancreas that releases insulin inside the body in response to high sugar level. Smart gels might someday be used to make exotic foods, cosmetics, medicines, and sensors. See the article Smart Gels and Shake Gels.
I should also mention this enjoyable 1931 story by Dr. David H. Keller; you can read The Steam Shovel to see how the brain of an elephant can direct the operation of a great steam shovel.
('The Steam Shovel' by Dr. David H. Keller)
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Starfish
More Ideas
and Technology by Peter Watts
Tech news articles related to Starfish
Tech news articles related to works by Peter Watts
Head Cheese-related
news articles:
- Rat Neurons In A Dish Now Playing Flight Simulator
- Rat Brain Robot Uses Cultured Rat Neurons
- Rat Brain Robot Gets Upgrades
- Robots With Human Brains
- Making Drone Aircraft Smarter
- Artificial Microbrain Memory Cells
- Neuromorphic Brain-Chip Takes Flight
- Mini-Brains In A Dish
- Brainoware Reservoir Computation Of Biological Neural Networks
- Neuroplatform Human Brain Organoid Bioprocessor Uses Less Electricity
| Light Society: Simulates Earth-Scale Society With A Billion AI Agents |
| Collective Superintelligence Is At Hand! |
| AI Operates An Excavator |
| Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish |
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'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
