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"All fiction is propaganda, and the fiction we like is the propaganda we believe in, and the fiction we don't like is the propaganda we don't believe in."
- Samuel R. Delany
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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." |
| 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
| Teslas Have Minds, Says Elon Musk |
| Are You Ready To Zoom With Dr. ChatGPT? |
| Ancient Cuneiform Texts Translated By AI - Sort Of |
| AI Tutors For Every Child - Thanks, DARPA! |
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'Robots have worse problems than anybody.' (A Present for Pat)
'... the frosted glass squares began, one by one, to show the faces and shoulders of a peculiar type of young men.'
'When the colony was established, the whole interior was carved out with atomic burners...'
'The machine scans the patterns of the mind; ...Impress these same waves on a robot computer.'
'... ravished with joy, I gazed at the giant suns, Arcturus and Betelguese, and the red Antares, and at systems of double and triple and quadruple suns...'
'Skarwold pushed a switch and Katz’s autodoc sprayed sedative into his lungs.'
'... it is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature.'
'The tree ended its wild larruping, stood like a dreaming giant liable to wake into frenzy at any moment.'
