Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
Read More.Praise for Star Dragon
"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
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Poll: Would you like to be Bionic?
February 2nd, 2010
There’s an article about artificial limbs with a picture of an attractive woman, a double-amputee, running along the beach. The premise of the article is that some artificial limbs are starting to outperform original limbs, in at least some ways. This trend will continue into the future, no doubt, until we have the capability to make impressive cyborgs. I’m just wondering how many people, if anyone, even among science fiction loving folks who are the most common readers here, would cut off a healthy limb in favor of a mechanical limb that worked better. (I understand “better” is a relative term here, probably.) If I had a permanently injured limb, for sure, probably. But a normal healthy limb?
What do you think?
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seriously, I doubt mechanical limbs and organs will exist much longer… the Star Wars robotic hand of Luke Skywalker for example, probably will never come to exist, because we are perfecting ORGANIC limb and organ replacements, made out of stem cells, etc.
Want to improve something? Not only we will have genetic treatments, as probably nanobots in our blood vessels (the nanobots will make us cyborgs, thats true).
I think we can improve every aspect of our body simply by messing with genetics. (and the same way, we will be able to uplift other animals).
And when organs or limbs start failing or you lose them, make a new one that IS your (made from your own cells).
I think we will have mechanical components only for a few things that may be impossible to make organic.
Gee, I think your own book, Star Dragon, dealt with this issue in some depth, didnt it?
In the real world, there is too much uncertainty and risk with medical technology anyway for me to consider intentionally replacing a limb with a supposedly better prosthetic version.
E.g. recently I’ve seen articles about how laser eye surgery (which seems to have become fairly mainstream) is causing a lot more long term problems than people were led to believe.
I agree with Russ, there is too much uncertainty to consider it. I like my legs. Plus there is always the troubling issue of continued upgrades and maintenance. And who is going to write the software in control of this limb. I know too many crappy programmers (admittedly I live in Redmond, WA).
Well, we are cyborgs already, many of us. Just not by choice. I mean, glasses, false teeth, hip and joint replacements…and limbs for amputees.
Yes, Star Dragon is all bio. I agree with you, Rogerio, that it will be this way in the far far future, maybe probably, if we get there with high tech. Unless we decide something else is better. Near term (decades still probably) we’re talking mechanical replacements.
Mike, do you really think it will take so much time for all this kind of bio replacements/improvements? Well, maybe not like in Star Dragon, but like I talked about… the medical scientists hint that all of this AND immortality are closer than we may imagine…
Probably. This stuff takes longer than people think, in the short-term. Closer than the average person imagines is still decades, or even centuries. Medicine/health doesn’t have the speeds of computers (of course the marriage of the two is the great hope).
If I was some kind of mercenary, maybe I would upgrade my arm to a titanium limb or rotating mini Gatling.
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