A new venue for Gothic horror comes from this report on silk-based digital implants. A Tufts project combines electronic sensors with light silk, with the goal of implanting the combination on a body.
Or in a body. A silk-sensor patch could monitor an organ's functioning, sending information out to a wireless receiver, such as a phone. The fabric would then decay and dissolve by a set date.
Set aside the medical benefits for the moment, and consider the horrific possibilities.
- Hacking potentials. An inquisitive outsider sends the silk-sensor-web some new commands.
- Technical glitches. For example, on a patch resting on top of the brain.
- The old Frankenstein trick: sensors attain consciousness. Blade Runner variant: perhaps don't want to be dissolved.
- Imagine the silk-sensor web which doesn't decay, but persists for years.
- "a silk optical fiber could transmit light from an LED array to an implanted silk sensor, which would change color to indicate that a cancer has come back." A detailed glow appears from within the body, under the skin...
Our posthuman future sneaking up on us, one mad scientist trick at a time.
Posted by: Ed Webb | May 04, 2010 at 20:51
"RUN RUNNER!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxJoTpBg_W4
Posted by: peter naegele | May 04, 2010 at 21:52
verisimilar!
Posted by: saramin | May 05, 2010 at 10:10
Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin;
Posted by: Ed Webb | May 05, 2010 at 13:00
Posthuman Gothic - that's close to the full story of our times, Ed.
Peter, that's awesome. I should watch that again.
saramin, think of the music possibilities.
PS: Ed, Eliot was right, but not as right as Webster. Didn't kid Webster have a cruel cameo in _Shakespeare in Love_?
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | May 06, 2010 at 17:28