If nothing else, it's definitely something to add to a world.
Posted by pooka (Member # 1738) on :
I'm always looking for stuff like that for my garbage-miners' future. I think the last time I was looking at it, I was thinking we would use robots to do the garbage mining and they would develop a collective A.I.
Posted by Marva (Member # 3171) on :
That's almost mind-boggling. Nano-technology is a lot further along that one might believe.
Posted by Louiseoneal (Member # 3494) on :
Oh neat. On the other hand, I don't want these critters running around in my system wreaking havoc with my nervous system...
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
Sso, like, could you paint your car in them and get some sort of energy happening?
Like nano-electric paint?
( Better than $1.50 a litre for petrol! How many litres to a gallon? Anyone? )
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Just less than four.
I don't know that there's really a story in it. It could be part of a story, but it doesn't strike me as really revolutionary at this point in time.
Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :
Having it as just part of the world is easy way to use the concept. One possible way to use it though, is to have a story of an inventor who perfects the use of this power and how it effects the way society works. In this case, there might be a run on garbage dumps for the right metals, or the medium used to keep them going suddenly becomes in short supply because it is naturally a limited resource (Lactate comes from milk, consider a sudden run on milk to make the lactate) or there might be regular battery companies going out of business, or This suddenly provides a near unlimited source of power because one is no longer bound by chemical reactions used in regular batteries. One fill your tanks with Lactoline fuel in your electric car and then can drive three hundred miles, just as you would with gasoline. five minutes max and you are on your way. The advantage and cleanliness of electricity, the ease of use of gasoline.
Then of course, one could do a story of how the system fails, an airborn virus spreads rapidly, killing the fuel cells. the society has to turn to other, older, fuel sources which were nearly abandoned years ago.
These are just a few ideas in a couple minutes of thought. I could come up with a lot more if I gave it some serious thought.
Posted by thexmedic (Member # 2844) on :
To me it seems to start a whole 'unbalancing nature/mutant killer bacteria' disaster story, but maybe I read Stephen King's "Cell" too recently...
Posted by Louiseoneal (Member # 3494) on :
Neal Stephenson's sci-fi novel The Diamond Age handles nanotech very well.
[This message has been edited by Louiseoneal (edited July 19, 2006).]
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Um...it's nifty, but it really isn't that revolutionary. I'm serious.