Must Have Mad Cackle
So I read a lot of science fiction. Sure some of it is space opera, alien overlords out to conquer the universe and the like. That kind of pulp is quick fun reading and if you took out the aliens and the super lasers you basically have human drama (or melodrama) in a fancy package. It is what one might call a guilty pleasure.
Then you have the science fiction that tries to envision the world as it is not to far down the road. Some might call it speculative fiction in that it paints a believable scenario of what might be. Some of the best stuff is so close to reality that it is almost spooky. So when I went to pick up my dog eared copy of William Gibson's Neuromancer, the other day it got me thinking.
In this book the main character the main character is living in a foreign country trying to find a black market biological or chemical solution to some damage that has been done to his body. In this universe there are doctors and reseachers doing science pretty much as they please with little or no oversight and some of the things they do can best be described as horrific.
So this got me wondering what kind if the profession of "Mad Scientist" is alive and well in this world. There are a lot of places in this world where a dictator or a warlord type might be willing to set up one with few morals and a lot of curiosity, just so long as the lab turns a profit of course.
What kind of things are they studying. Sure there is the entire weapon development thing and the germ warfare thing but these guys have to have side projects. They are all products of a scientific bureaucracies where they would have learned to inflate a budget.
Could it be that right now some one is working to develop the winged monkey? Smarter dogs? Some kind of anti aging cream that is more than cosmetic foolery.
What kind of help wanted ad did they answer?
Wanted : Hard working research scientist with a PhD biology or chemistry. Candidate should be self motivated and eager to work outside the box. Candidate will need to relocate to private island volcano lair. A generous benefits package will be provided including personal humpback servant, mountain castle retreat time share and a 401K retirement package. You don't have to cackle to work here, but it helps.
If only I had been good at science.
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Then you have the science fiction that tries to envision the world as it is not to far down the road. Some might call it speculative fiction in that it paints a believable scenario of what might be. Some of the best stuff is so close to reality that it is almost spooky. So when I went to pick up my dog eared copy of William Gibson's Neuromancer, the other day it got me thinking.
In this book the main character the main character is living in a foreign country trying to find a black market biological or chemical solution to some damage that has been done to his body. In this universe there are doctors and reseachers doing science pretty much as they please with little or no oversight and some of the things they do can best be described as horrific.
So this got me wondering what kind if the profession of "Mad Scientist" is alive and well in this world. There are a lot of places in this world where a dictator or a warlord type might be willing to set up one with few morals and a lot of curiosity, just so long as the lab turns a profit of course.
What kind of things are they studying. Sure there is the entire weapon development thing and the germ warfare thing but these guys have to have side projects. They are all products of a scientific bureaucracies where they would have learned to inflate a budget.
Could it be that right now some one is working to develop the winged monkey? Smarter dogs? Some kind of anti aging cream that is more than cosmetic foolery.
What kind of help wanted ad did they answer?
Wanted : Hard working research scientist with a PhD biology or chemistry. Candidate should be self motivated and eager to work outside the box. Candidate will need to relocate to private island volcano lair. A generous benefits package will be provided including personal humpback servant, mountain castle retreat time share and a 401K retirement package. You don't have to cackle to work here, but it helps.
If only I had been good at science.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 1:28 AM
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