Bonus post: if I could control the future of technology

Those mice got me thinking again about our current technology and about the future.

If I could control the direction of technology it would go something like this: we get past the stage where technology is ugly and awkward and artificial into a stage of finesse. Instead of gigantic centralized power plants, we gradually move to decentralized power plants. Instead of efficient shipping we move to local sufficiency. Instead of homes and roads covering the planet we have woods and paths. Instead of a few main vegetables that we know we draw from hundreds of species and hundreds of varieties within each species. Rather than just capacity we move toward robustness, toward beauty, and toward permanence. Every where you walk it is beautiful and wild animals and plants are thriving.

Rather than become robots we become fauns and nymphs, inhabiting the beauty of the earth, communicating, care-taking replenishing. We would look back on this stage of progression as the awkward stage. We will have moved from technology and science to art and magic.

Tricks with mice

Just in case you weren’t aware, genetics is progressing. Here are some interesting tricks that have been pulled with mice over the last little while.

Mice reported here were given super endurance, ate 60% more than ordinary mice and stayed healthy and fit for longer.

Mice are normally color blind, but these mice were given color vision.

A dozen varieties of mice have been created with improved mental abilities.

Scientists have been able to make super strong mice for a little while. Now they can make them stronger. (Check out the pictures.)