“We can rebuild him. We have the technology.” That’s an inspiring phrase, perhaps when applied to a dashing test pilot played by Lee Majors. But what about when it’s applied to an artificial, light-controlled stingray with an elastomer body and a gold skeleton? Thanks to the efforts of applied physicist Kevin Kit Parker, robo-fish like this are now a scientific fact, not fiction. Is this the opening salvo in a war between mecha and orga, one wonders? No, it’s a perfectly legitimate scientific experiment, one that’s supposedly going to lead to a breakthrough in creating artificial organs like hearts. The upshot of all this is that Parker has succeeded in creating a fake stingray that is neither wholly robotic nor wholly organic.
For those who don’t care if they ever sleep again, Science has prepared a brief video tutorial about all of this. Upbeat music and tidy graphics aside, there’s no way this is anything less than profoundly unsettling.