Evolving Beyond Control: Is it possible for science to go too far?
By S. Jane M.
The Matrix, Terminator, and Fringe; two movies and a show that revolve around the idea that science can and will evolve beyond human control. For years the media has raised this issue in many ways, showing the problem in cinemas and televisions throughout the world. Though is it possible that machines could rise up to overthrow the human race (Terminator)? Could a strain of toxin be the downfall to humankind (all Zombie movies)? In order to figure out if any of these concepts are possible one must find out if people will ever go into that dangerous realm of science, the part of science that is on the fringe. Is it possible that humans will finally explore realms of science so horrible and revolutionary that people will lose control of their own projects?
According to the show Fringe the answer is a resounding, YES! Mind control, people with the ability to walk through walls, plants that can crush a human heart from the inside; all are possible in the world of Fringe. Set in the present, the show is described as a cross between The X-Files, The Twilight Zone and Dark Angel. Following FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, scientist Walter Bishop and his son Peter, they investigate aspects of fringe science (telepathy, levitation, invisibility, reanimation, genetic mutation, etc).
All over the world many horrifying and untheical experiments, known as “the pattern,” are occurring for unknown reasons. The trio is in charge of investigating these strange events to determine there source. From the start the pattern becomes linked to a company called Massive Dynamic; a leading global research company that holds hundreds of patents new and important technologies.
The scariest part of the show is that most of it is based on fact. According to insidescience.org the two media consultants, Glen Whitman and Rob Chiappetta, for Fringe base the show on an extensive archive of science and technology journals. “By the time we were hired, the archive had several hundred articles and we had both become very familiar with recent developments in the world of science. A lot of times we have a scene where something will happen and we have to figure out how this can be justified scientifically, so we will come up with three ideas and the writers choose,” said Whitman (1).
“One week we are pouring over journals and focusing on the latest neuroscience research and the next week we are learning all about hormones,” said Chiappetta (1).
Many of the articles come from credible and well known sources such as Wired, Discover, and Seed magazines.
“We find examples everyday where the fringe sciences on the show are talked about [in the news],” Chiappetta said. “There was this physicist at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) on 60 Minutes talking about the Large Hadron Collider, and when they asked him what would be a practical application of LHC research, he said maybe in ten years – teleportation.” (1)
But in the end Fringe is just a television show, not real life. Though well researched and based on some truth, the show is made to make money not to spread the truth. In order for society to realistically be worried that science will become beyond our control, there must be proof that it is going on in the real world, not only in the world of science fiction.
Looking at the past, scientists have had many fantastic, futuristic and odd ideas. Some of these were even seen as on the fringe; for example, Copernicus’s theory of heliocentricity (the earth revolves around the sun) and Darwin’s theory of evolution. But in today’s society with advances as far as they are, it almost seems that there is only one truly unknown realm of science, that is fringe science. Some aspects of this odd science include research into the ability that would allow people to walk through walls, read each other’s minds, even teleportation. This far stretched part of science has been explored by many, but never has made any major and world changing advancements, at least not to the public’s knowledge. Since there has been no advancements in this area in the thousands of years it could be concluded that there is nothing to discover, essentially that it is a dead realm of science. But in actuality fringe science is very plausible and even occurring today.
Ray guns have been synonymous with science fiction since television started and now they are a reality. According to economist.com “the most famous weapon of science fiction is rapidly becoming fact (2).” Multiple ‘directed energy weapons’ or ray guns are in development today, three already completed or in experimental phases; known as Zeus, LADS (Laser Area Defense System) and ABL (Airborne Laser). The least offensive of the three, Zeus, already has a prototype in the field today. Purely defensive, it was created to detonate unexploded bombs in order to make an area safer for soldiers and civilians. On the other hand the ABL, once testing is finished, will be used to explode rockets in their boost faze. The boost faze is when the rocket is powering up before it is launched.
On the other side of the spectrum the US Army is currently investing in an aspect of ‘fringe’ science, a thought sending helmet. Reported by Psysorg.com, the US Army has recently given a four million dollar contract to researchers from the University of California at Irvine, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Maryland to study the concept.
During the initial stages of creating the helmet, the Army’s concerns lay with “making [the] thought helmet a feasible piece of equipment for soldiers. [In order for this to happen] scientists need to combine advances in computing power together with our understanding of the human brain (3).”
Currently the thought helmet concept consists of 128 sensors embedded in a soldier’s helmet. For it to work “soldiers would have to think in clear, formulaic ways; which is similar to how they are already trained to talk (3).” The key challenge to making the system work is creating a software system that can read an electroencephalogram (EEG) generated by the sensors, pick out when a soldier is thinking words, and what those words are. Essential to the success of the project is making improvements to a computers computing power, which would allow it to understand the large amounts of complex data the brain creates.
Though it will likely be more than a decade before the Army’s thought transmitting helmet will be functional, other researchers have been working on more commercial uses for other brain-computer interfaces. One example is Emotiv Systems´ brain-wave headset for video games, expected to be out next summer.
Now is a terrifying time to live in.
Gone are the simple days where a dumb barbarian or simple plague could kill everyone you know. We live in a time where the possibilities are endless and happening soon. Advancements are made every day, and another hundred the next. Though it is a great time to live (the internet, iPod, Hybrid Cars) it is also a scary one (SARS, Ray Guns, Paris Hilton). The world is evolving fast, maybe even too quickly. It is all I can hope that when a scientist discovers a toxin to reanimate the dead, they don’t let the technology get away from them and make the best choice. Some discoveries shouldn’t be made.
Some discoveries shouldn't be made...
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