On Shellfish and The Singularity
A glimpse into the inside of my mind.
I'm driving down the road the other day, and I see a truck out of the corner of my eyes, with a sign:
IPSWITCH
Ah, I think, that says "IP SWITCH" (where IP stands for Internet Protocol, one of the basic protocols your browser, and much of the net, runs on). Must be a truck carrying routers or some other telco equipment. Probably sets up networks for small businesses or something like.
Then I glance at the truck again -- there's a URL below the sign:
WWW.IPSWITCHSHELLFISH.COM
Holy crap!, I think. This truck must be carrying clams and other shellfish, with the INTERNET PROTOCOL BRED INTO THEIR VERY DNA! It's got such an unassuming shabby exterior, but inside, I bet it's all gleaming green lights and clear cylindrical vats with beautiful genetically-engineered shellfish inside, quietly passing internet packets between each other. Maybe the shellfish uses radio waves (hey, they could have bred biological radio transmitting equipment into the shells), or sonar, or maybe even sound waves -- clams clicking quietly in morse code to each other, in the dark, on the bottom of the sea.
What this means is, if these shellfish (or their eggs, at least) are scattered all over the ocean floor, you get a living, self-repairing wireless mesh network, WiFi but on an oceanic scale! Forget stretching expensive undersea cable between continents, if you toss these mutant clams in the water in sufficient quantities, and let them populate the oceans, and set up interface stations (to translate IP traffic from optical fibres into shellfish code) on shore, you basically get free, redundant (albeit somewhat slow) connections between the continents! And then we can splice IP-routing DNA into trees and grasses, and cover the continents too with this bio-mesh network (perhaps rogue hackers with mad garage-level genetic engineering skills can do this part) -- let Comcast and their ilk try to enforce Net Neutrality then! Free, ubiquitous, slow (at first), planet-wide internet.
That is, until they start to mutate, of course. I mean, we've all seen what happens once you start breeding the Internets into living organisms. Just look at Blood Music by Greg Bear, or better yet Ilium by Dan Simmons. They wired up the trees of a forest to transmit IP packets between each other (to get better forestry data, to judge the health of the ecosystem, etc), and eventually the forest evolved, and the entire biosphere became self-aware! (And promptly took on the identify of Ariel, from Shakespeare's Tempest. Look, it uh.. makes sense within the book. Maybe.)
This is EXACTLY what is going to happen with these IP-enabled shellfish, I know it! The VERY OCEANS are going to become self-aware (if they aren't already), and join us on the internet (and become of godlike intelligence. Interspersed with LOLcats). The biosphere and infosphere is sure to follow.
Humanity will be warped beyond recognition, faced with these changes and being forced to share the planet with a mysterious godlike oceanic intelligence! All sorts of posthuman shenanigans will surely occur, just like in Singularity Sky by Charles Stross!
This truck represents baby steps ON THE PATH TO A SHELLFISH SINGULARITY APOCALYPSE!!!
Then, a tiny section, in the background of my mind, speaks up: You know, the word probably refers to Ipswitch, MA, and the truck is probably carrying regular seafood.
Sigh.
(This kind of thing happens all the time).
I'm driving down the road the other day, and I see a truck out of the corner of my eyes, with a sign:
IPSWITCH
Ah, I think, that says "IP SWITCH" (where IP stands for Internet Protocol, one of the basic protocols your browser, and much of the net, runs on). Must be a truck carrying routers or some other telco equipment. Probably sets up networks for small businesses or something like.
Then I glance at the truck again -- there's a URL below the sign:
WWW.IPSWITCHSHELLFISH.COM
Holy crap!, I think. This truck must be carrying clams and other shellfish, with the INTERNET PROTOCOL BRED INTO THEIR VERY DNA! It's got such an unassuming shabby exterior, but inside, I bet it's all gleaming green lights and clear cylindrical vats with beautiful genetically-engineered shellfish inside, quietly passing internet packets between each other. Maybe the shellfish uses radio waves (hey, they could have bred biological radio transmitting equipment into the shells), or sonar, or maybe even sound waves -- clams clicking quietly in morse code to each other, in the dark, on the bottom of the sea.
What this means is, if these shellfish (or their eggs, at least) are scattered all over the ocean floor, you get a living, self-repairing wireless mesh network, WiFi but on an oceanic scale! Forget stretching expensive undersea cable between continents, if you toss these mutant clams in the water in sufficient quantities, and let them populate the oceans, and set up interface stations (to translate IP traffic from optical fibres into shellfish code) on shore, you basically get free, redundant (albeit somewhat slow) connections between the continents! And then we can splice IP-routing DNA into trees and grasses, and cover the continents too with this bio-mesh network (perhaps rogue hackers with mad garage-level genetic engineering skills can do this part) -- let Comcast and their ilk try to enforce Net Neutrality then! Free, ubiquitous, slow (at first), planet-wide internet.
That is, until they start to mutate, of course. I mean, we've all seen what happens once you start breeding the Internets into living organisms. Just look at Blood Music by Greg Bear, or better yet Ilium by Dan Simmons. They wired up the trees of a forest to transmit IP packets between each other (to get better forestry data, to judge the health of the ecosystem, etc), and eventually the forest evolved, and the entire biosphere became self-aware! (And promptly took on the identify of Ariel, from Shakespeare's Tempest. Look, it uh.. makes sense within the book. Maybe.)
This is EXACTLY what is going to happen with these IP-enabled shellfish, I know it! The VERY OCEANS are going to become self-aware (if they aren't already), and join us on the internet (and become of godlike intelligence. Interspersed with LOLcats). The biosphere and infosphere is sure to follow.
Humanity will be warped beyond recognition, faced with these changes and being forced to share the planet with a mysterious godlike oceanic intelligence! All sorts of posthuman shenanigans will surely occur, just like in Singularity Sky by Charles Stross!
This truck represents baby steps ON THE PATH TO A SHELLFISH SINGULARITY APOCALYPSE!!!
Then, a tiny section, in the background of my mind, speaks up: You know, the word probably refers to Ipswitch, MA, and the truck is probably carrying regular seafood.
Sigh.
(This kind of thing happens all the time).