I StumbledUpon an article about immortal jellyfish and immediately thought about Bruce Sterling’s “Visionary in Residence”.  He has some short stories (all wacky science fiction of course) about “bio-punks” who make upgrades to their (and their pet’s) bodies in a Johnny Mnemonic sort of way.  But, instead of simply being able to store data in your head like Johnny they had some pretty useful alterations.  For example, one of the guys had a pet hog who could eat something, then analyze the ingredients of what was eaten and send the analysis to the owner’s handheld.

All this makes me wonder when we will see people experiment with their bodies in this manner.  When will we see a company that specializes in wiring your brain directly to the internet to bypass a computer terminal altogether?  When will there be a separation between human purists and biotech modified humans, and which group will be alienated?

You might think that modifications that drastic are too far out there for anyone to even think about.  Try telling that to this guy, this guy or Kevin Warwick.

I’d like to think we could tap into a plant’s ability to capture energy through photosynthesis or a horse’s ability to mature into adulthood more quickly coupled with an implant to make all of human knowledge a natural instinct to skip the arduous 20-year schooling process.