THE TRANSHUMANISM SCRAPBOOK: SELF-PROPELLED NANOBOTS IN LIVING ANIMALS ...
This one comes courtesy of Mr. C.H., a regular reader here, and its a "whopper doozie" if you've been following the creep crawly progress towards the transhumanist "singularity." But first, recall that the crucial four technologies which transhumanists argue will led to that "alchemical" transformation of man are the so-called GRIN technologies: genetics, robotics, information technologies, and nano-technology. In the last case, nano-technology, we have come a long way from the 1980s popular classic on the subject, Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation. There, nano-technology was still mostly a dream. Sure, by that time, IBM had used a small number of xenon atoms to spell out its corporate name(too much time on their hands, I suppose), and Bell Laboratories had actually built the first man-made atom (WAY too much time on their hands!), but actual self-propelling little machines that could roam about inside an animal's or human's body, ala the 1960s television/movie sci-fi classic Fantasic Voyage, and do "repairs" and other microsurgery, were still a long way off. Indeed, in the Fantastic Voyage version, the idea wasn't nanotechnology at all, but rather, shrinking an entire contraption, rather like a space capsule or submarine, with its human pilots, down to a nano-scale and injecting them into the individual. The human pilots would have to pilot their way through the blood system to the point where they would do their surgery. (The idea was updated, in fact, in a humorous version in a Spielberg movie with Dennis Quaid and Martin Short, Innerspace, in 1987).
All that the stuff of dreams and science fiction.
Until now:
The First Demonstration Of Self-Propelled Nanobots In A Living Animal
The first paragraphs say it all:
"Researchers from the University of California have developed acid-fueled micro-machines capable of traveling and delivering cargo directly inside a living creature. It's a breakthrough that's expected to significantly advance the field of medical nano-robotics.
"Scientists have developed drug-delivering micro-machines before, but these systems were only tested under in vitro conditions (i.e., cell cultures outside the body). But in this latest breakthrough, Wei Gao and colleagues have shown that artificial micromotors can travel inside a live mouse, deliver its cargo, and produce no toxic effects.
"This is definitely an important proof-of-concept. Nanotechnology has the potential to reshape the way medicine is done. In the future, scaled-up versions of this rudimentary micro-machine could deliver important medicines to previously inaccessible parts of the body (e.g., to treat peptic ulcers and other illnesses), fight infectious diseases, or even perform complex tasks like direct cellular manipulation and repair."
As with all technologies, there is vast potential for evil here as well: self-destruction nano-bots would be designed to target specific areas of the body, to induce such things as heart attacks, aneurisms, and so on, and self-destruct, leaving little to no trace of their presence. Forget about those 1960s CIA poison pens, prussic acid cigars, or those KGB polonium pellet umbrella guns.
But there's also great potential for good here. One or two immediate applications suggest themselves beyond those suggested in the article: such technology could conceivable be used to break or penetrate the blood-brain barrier, to deliver medicine to people with brain tumors, or even to perform microsurgery on impossible-to-reach aneurisms in the brain, or to deliver potent chemotherapies or even microsurgery on types of tumors currently inoperable, such as glioblastoma multiforms, or surgery on heart valves without open heart procedures, and so on. The potential for good here is very great, and this experiment is a significant step in the use of nanotechnologies in medical applications.
See you on the flip side...
(My thanks to Mr. C.H. for sharing this important news)
9 Comments
Help the Community Grow
Please understand a donation is a gift and does not confer membership or license to audiobooks. To become a paid member, visit member registration.
Wonder how much your medical insurance would increase to be covered by this Frankenstienish medical procedure?
No doubt they are thinking $$$$$$$$$$ here, follow the money et al.
Amazing what you can engineer in hyperspace..
How about inducing Alzheimer or Dementia in certain individuals with this technology. The same way cancer and coronaries are used to disable and kill political opponents. Given our oligarchs mindset it would surprise me that they would put this technologies to these uses.
Professor Moriarty has resurrected Dr. No & Dr. Moreau and their star pupils are engineered insect-upped drone assassins.
They’re sinister ideas are being realized,
and to be released by millions upon millions of mosquitoes
into the “wild”…
These guys are part of the inmates running the wannabe NWO asylum;
aka Galaxy’s: “GOD’s-Gone-Wrong experiment.
As of this time, the whereabouts of Dr. NO is unknown.
Or even, for that matter, what he is up to.
Any ideas?
Intelligence sources are not only unreliable,
but changing faster than the information can be analyzed.
Would seem that the ricin used in the umbrella jab is even less likely to be traced.
And then that directed energy weapons could harm humans much more easily, and still stay hidden.
Hi Doc
Curious if you’ve ever come across the infamous ‘Rofschild’ thread (now deleted) from godlikeproductions forum … he mentioned nanobots being unable to thrive in alkaline environs. Interesting as the article points out these are acid-fueled pieces of tech
Watch your diet, I suppose
V
That’s interesting about the alkaline environment, neither can living organisms survive there either. For the younger readers here anyone else think magic school bus right away? Haha