Dedicating his new book to biohacking, the American science fiction writer could not even think how real it is.
American writer Jim Tchaikovsky, who publishes science fiction works under the pseudonym James Rollins, is about to delight us with another creation in the style of "Michael Crichton with Dan Brown sauce." The book, The Eye of God, talks about the collapse of a satellite, resulting in a "fold" in the fabric of space-time, and the last thing that the device transmits is an image of blazing ruins in the place of cities on the east coast of the United States …
With four days left to prevent the tragedy, several teams from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are sent in search of Genghis Khan's skull.
All this nonsense is of course not interesting to us. Another thing is curious. The novel raises the pressing problems of "biohacking", that is, attempts to approach biology as something that can be "hacked": clandestine genetic experiments at an amateur level, dreams of implants that endow superhuman capabilities, etc. Mr. Tchaikovsky does not excludes the possibility that sooner or later we will "hack" ourselves.
For example, tiny magnets made of rare earth metals are inserted into the fingertips of one of his characters, thanks to which a person feels electromagnetic fields: at the right moment the magnets begin to vibrate, and the nerves located nearby feel it. Vibration allows you to form an opinion about the characteristics of the field.
The writer claims that he did not come up with it himself - there are already people with such magnets (some have one or two fingers, some have all). Over time, a person becomes so sensitive that he begins to perceive the "fluidity", "shape", even the "color" of electromagnetic radiation.
This is mostly for fun, but one of Mr. Tchaikovsky's interviewees admitted that he is now able to understand if his computer's hard drive is working properly, and another has learned to "feel" which cylinders are passing ignition in his car's engine.
The writer himself has not yet decided to implant magnets due to the painfulness of the procedure - after all, they have to be changed every two years. Perhaps in the future, when the magnets become more durable and, moreover, will be coated with polymers in order to weaken rejection and reduce the likelihood of infection …
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Among the layman's other nightmares, the book mentions tattoos with luminescent ink, gems inserted into the white of the eye, implanted RFID chips that are used as wearable storage devices, etc. (By the way, the latter seems to be very convenient: no one but you will be able to use your phone, laptop, etc.)
But in reality, things are still, um, worse. Mr. Tchaikovsky once visited a specialized fair in San Francisco and met a woman there who asked who would agree to change hands for the twins. That is literally: the arm is cut off to the twin and the limb of the other twin is sewn on. Of course, this is just as illegal as implantation of RFID microcircuits, but it is possible that the customer still found the contractor (this is San Francisco!).
The writer is convinced that this trend is destined to leave the slums of megacities. Google Glass will go on sale very soon, and augmented reality lenses are already being developed in Japan. A little more, and we will wear such things not on, but in ourselves.
Moreover, Mr. Tchaikovsky is not shy about calling himself a champion of transhumanism. In his opinion, this is the next stage of our evolution. Biology, he says, has its limits, and sooner or later we will have to combine machine and human.
And that's not the strangest thing yet. Collecting materials for the book, the writer visited the National Accelerator Laboratory. Enrico Fermi near Chicago and asked scientists his trademark questions: “What worries you about your research? Why can't you sleep at night?"
And one of the interlocutors said a great phrase: "Our research led us to the idea that the entire Universe may be a fake, a giant hologram." Mr. Tchaikovsky immediately recalled the Holodeck holographic imagery simulator from the Star Trek series.
The physicist, meanwhile, tried to explain to a person with a veterinarian diploma what he means. From a mathematical point of view, he said, there is a high probability that the entire universe is determined by equations describing the inner surface of a sphere (at least that is how the writer heard it).
This statement led Mr. Tchaikovsky to the idea that people could well exist in the form of holograms, and such characters do appear in him. Enjoy reading!