18 February
Swimming With Genius?
National Geographic is easily my favourite magazine from childhood–I adore science and nature so how could it not be?; most other magazines have changed, become modernized, sometimes beyond all recognition—but N.G. remains almost as it always has, and true as ever to its cause. One of the things I remember reading about when I was much younger was the coming of the bionic age and how it wasn’t too far away; now, in a recent issue, it seems that age is here. And much earlier than I would have predicted.
Robotic fish. The stuff of science-fiction fantasy, right? According to the magazine, robotic fish have been around for many years in some shape or form. Their use? To scour the ocean and detect changes in the underwater environment–toxins, pollution levele etc–relaying the information to computers above the surface.
But we’re not quite there yet, so curb your enthusiasm; robotic fish are currently still in their infancy and confined to tanks until they are ready for the open sea.
The question comes to mind: what next? Robotic sharks? Robotic octopi? The list of possibilities is obviously as limitless as the varieties of organic life themselves.
Obviously, if we keep going with this train of thought we arrive, as ever, at a place which is dark and uncomfortable: what about spying? What about the government? Maybe they are already out there? Maybe that cute red fish you saw in the sea which made you think of a certain film is actually not what it appears to be–
But don’t go expecting to actually catch a robotic fish in the future; by the time they are released it’s highly likely that most people won’t be able to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s fake.
By the way, I have just found this amazing new blog done by Paul Welton Enigin. It is all about energy savings, and the technology that Enigin is using to impliment in big businesses and cut the carbon costs!