Cybernetics

One of my favorite movies is Fifth Element, a quirky sci-fi with loads of eye candy (Milla Jovovich included) and abstract technologies to explore. One scene that jumped out at me as not-so-far-fetched the first time I watched it was where one of Zorg's agents uses a cockroach to infiltrate and spy on a discussion with the President. The cockroach was controlled by remote-control, and featured a bug-like (no pun) listening device, allowing transmission of the conversation.

Not-so-far-fetched was right, as it turns out, with a story in Discover Magazine (The Pentagon’s Beetle Borgs) about a Pentagon-backed research project conducted at UC-Berkeley.

The first wireless flying-insect cyborg—a remote-controlled beetle—has been developed by engineers at the University of California at Berkeley. The six-legged biomechanical hybrid can rise, hover, and fly on command, guided by a radio receiver that relays signals to electrodes connected to the insect’s optic lobes and flight muscles.

This really feels like a no-brainer to me. Not only are there all sorts of ways to replace humans in risky situations (exploring deep caves or toxic environments), but you could also reduce expenditures for other tecnological-dependent actions (military drones, for example).

Of course, this new technology opens up numerous ethical considerations for which there are really no foreseeable consensus. Not that this crosses any boundaries we haven't long ago chosen to cross, but new combinations of technology and animals always brings the ethical questions to the forefront.

I personally think this is a natural evolution of our ability to effect and direct our environment. Consider the fluke and ant story that Dan Dennett likes to use and you'll recognize that we aren't even the first species to manipulate other species in this manner.