As a humanist with an eye to the awesome possibilities of the future, as well as an author who loves to write science fiction, I’m of the personal opinion that all scientific discoveries or advancements are good things. It’s the way those advancements and discoveries are used that makes science bad. We have plenty of examples throughout history of how this works.
Never is this more of a possibility than the current times in the world. We have started to microchip humans.
Now, I know what some will say, groan in exasperation really. “But T.A., we already have numerous stories about this stuff!” And we do. Absolutely. Hell, I’ve used micro-chipping as an innocuous part of my world building in one book. Whether it’s a dystopian or utopian backdrop in a story, we’ve seen it. But we’ve seen the end result almost exclusively, and not the path that brought us to those futures.
This new development in tech is a great road map to how we got to those futures. On the one hand, there are sectors of the populace that are having uncontrollable fits of “The government is going to tag us all like dogs! We’ll never be free!” I have two of those in my direct family circle. It’s pretty interesting to hear their arguments.
On the other hand, we have those that are pleased because with new tech comes new cool things to try, or a subset of the apathetic who figured it would come to this but honestly don’t care either way.
But it’s a dynamic to explore, another interesting piece of the human puzzle in regards to our future. Another way to learn about ourselves as a species and translate what we see into the work we do. Maybe it’s a step in our evolution, the first of many steps it takes to become both human and machine. Or, it could be a wake up to some that we are too reliant on the machines all around us. Personally, I’m rooting for the first option, just so people know where I stand.
Take note, my fellow authors. This is how the future begins and I fully expect someone to take this glorious path and put it on paper. Gimme.
-T.A. Creech
Science in the pursuit of Fiction.