2014 National Wormhole Week and Blog Hop! 3/10-16/2014
This blog hop and blog tour are brought to you by: Alex Cavanaugh, L. Diane Wolfe, and Stephen Tremp– the author of Escalation.
For 2014, the theme is to name one thing where science advances mankind, and one where technology with unforeseen consequences will go too far and set mankind back. Example: De-Extinction, or bringing back extinction species through back breeding, genetic engineering, and cloning. With all the breakthrough discoveries mankind is on the cusp of, are we playing God?
Feel free to reference movies and books too. These provide no shortage if inspiration. Speaking of de-extinction, the book and movie Jurassic Park comes to mind where science takes a huge leap forward, but also backfires. I’m looking forward to all the amazing responses everyone will have.
****
Each day this week I’ll be sharing quotes from sci-fi movies or books along with my thoughts on how far technologies still needs to go and where I think it will go too far.
Today I’m focusing on the technology that’s in our food.
The book I’ve picked for today is Cloud Atlas (similar to the movie, but better). This is not a straight-up sci-fi read, but it does have major sci-fi elements and themes.
From the book, Cloud Atlas I give you…
“This isn’t an interrogation or a trail. Your version of the truth is the only thing that matters.
Truth is singular. It’s ‘versions’ are mistruths.”~can’t recall the characters names
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas ~ (from Goodreads)
I don’t know if you’ve seen this movie or read the book, but it is worth experiencing at least once (of course the book is much better). I’m going to throw in a spoiler here so look away if you don’t want to know.
In this metaphysical tail of alternate realities, reincarnation, the consequences of the past, and warnings for the future- in a dystopian high-tech future it is dramatically revealed that the major source of protein comes from recycled cloned humanoid beings which serve as living machinery, free labor, and any other horrible thing you can think to use a “soulless” person for.
As shocking as this was to read and then see in the movie (which was lightened significantly) I could totally see something crazy like this happening. Have any of you ever heard of pink slime? We’re not that far from this already, but maybe I’m over reacting. How far is too far to go when it comes to feeding the masses at a reasonable cost? The truth is out there, but do people want to hear it or do they not think it’s a big deal?
This also brings up the timeless debate about preservatives and food additives. I enjoy eating all natural food whenever I can, but sometimes it’s nice to have those food advancements that keep my milk from spoiling after three days or my peanut butter from turning into lumpy oil. This is another topic to which I mostly agree with one over the other, but I’m not completely sold out to one just yet.
****
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out all the other ideas and theories about where technology is heading and going wrong.
Powered by Linky Tools Click here to follow this hop or enter your link to join in.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords
