Aliens forced Me!

[www.eskimo.com/~telical/]

Was I an unwilling pawn to write this at the whim of
benevolent aliens?

Wow, could anyone believe such optimistic views of life?

Who knows, I'd rather read Andre Breton and Tristan Tzara and
Novalis, but thought I'd give you some fuels for your spectral
fires.

BIODEGRADABLE TECHNOLOGIES Copyright 1986/1992 R.S. Pearson


INTRODUCTION
When many are discussing the negative effects of our factories
on the environment, they must realize the answer does not lie in
eliminating our factories but in modifying them. It appears that
it is possible for a technology to be invented that could co-exist
with the environment. We must envision our future to have even
more technological devices than today. These devices, however,
will be constructed on a different platform of technology for a
different system of electronics, utilizing different systems of
manufacturing.
This work concerns itself not with "new" energy sources, such
as solar, wind and aquatic. It examines new types of machinery
and their industrial production that could use these and other new types
of energy. We can also aim at sources of energy that do not exist
or are being ignored today. Energy, limited throughout our history
mainly to the burning of wood and fossil fuels, can come from more
abundant sources and less damaging processes, such as: gravity,
fermentation and other organic chemical reactions, and the
mechanisms of photosynthesis in plant tissues. These new sources
would require machinery appropriate to them, machineries that we
have not conceived of.
My premise is if applied scientists have an ethical
and creative connection to their craft, they will be able to take
the Earth out of its first stages of ecological decay by
developing a use of plant genetics that would mimic some present
technologies.

Chapter One
Today's industrial products damage the physical environment in
three distinct ways: by the method in which they are manufactured,
by the way they operate when functioning, and by their
disposal and eventual decay when obsolete.
This new technology combines organic chemistry, botany, plant
genetics,
electronics and mechanics to manufacture new products to
perform the tasks of our current technologies.
Plants are a dynamo of power in themselves. They are very
effective machines, as we see when we weed our lawns. The
harnessing of this power, the refining of these machines is all
that is needed. One possible goal is to make a plant's biological
processes work with different chemicals, producing electronic-like
components which are manufactured in a way that will produce no
pollution (or a small fraction of today's factory pollution).
These electronics though comparable in function with the
electronics of today, would be different in both theory and
application. Much theory, such as the concepts of modular
components, may remain similar to the electronic theory of today,
for instance, the concepts of modular components. Due to being built on
the foundation of plant tissues and not dry elements, new concepts
will be introduced.
The initial technologies developed in this new area of biodegradable
technologies need not be a full synthesis of
genetics and electronics, but primarily the engineering of botanic
mutations. Some items developed may be like a paper pulp "banana-
pod" a deciduous unit that requires no manufacturing after a
harvest except the refining of the pulp. Also "banana-pod" trees
for other resins may be grown to erase the need for certain
petrochemicals.
Petrochemicals form such a large percentage of our products
that it is had to forsee if we could ever live without them. Yet
since we do use so much of them it also seems imperative that we
abolish the way they are being produced and re-invent their
chemical concepts so that the production of these substances do not
harm men nor the environment. This general area is one that
science has already conquered in many ways, but the manufacturing
establishments is reluctant on changing.
The first resin we could develop would be the resin that a
rubber-tree produces. Then with genetic engineering we could
produce better strains of that resin, and more productive means for
the plant to create it. With experimentation, such as feeding
the plant's soil with different chemicals we could begin
to get a plant that would tolerate stronger types of rubber.
To bring this technology into reality requires the input of the
very foremost scientists working today. In fact, the level of
scientific expertise in genetics is such that it is impossible for
its knowledge to handle the more advanced types of systems I will
be describing. But some simple devices, such as putting together a
banana-pod that encases paper pulp or rubber resin, seems almost
possible if it became a point of focus for today's geneticists.
These ideas do not point to any one specific type of
technology alone, but instead at many related technologies. I am
pointing toward at a spectrum of technologies and methods to handle
the wide range of needs that we currently have and will continue to
have.
In the catalogue for the earth's plant life there are
several oddities: buds, pods, knobs, hard flowers; oddities whose
genes could be analyzed to reveal methods for utilizing these
compositional devices for a pragmatic purpose. Other items grown
may be wooden-like objects, genetically crafted by a machine that
could program specific sizes and shapes into plant genetics. The
product would be a plant that gives off as fruit or acorns or
specific designs. The need to cut down trees to get wood to make
these items nor use the petrochemical-based polymers currently used
so often today to make these items would be eliminated. Even today
it seems that one could make a good composition board out of acorns
and pine cones, and not cause any loss of trees.
As mentioned above, one direction we want to have available to
us is work based on exploiting the nature of the chemical
composition of plants. As we master this the chemical transforma-
tions produced by plants from food and sunlight can be altered.
This is the method by which our work becomes involved with
electronics. The plant's food is the soil and the liquid that is
watered into the soil. We know that if we add fertilizer we can
grow better stronger plants. But will certain chemicals affect the
nature of the photosynthetic processes? If they could, it might
begin the change from natural plants into biodegradable technology.
Combining this with manufacturing processes derived from botany,
such as changes in the environment, grafting, and new manufacturing
techniques we have the potential to utilize the plant kingdom to
divert our present use of the environment.
What one can acquire are various devices that are parallel to
our current merchandise, yet which are made out of organic and more
readily recyclable materials than current plastics, which are not
based on organic chemistry like our products are. Nor must they be
derived from the lumber of trees.
(Maybe one day soon we will only need to cut a tree down to get
lumber. The jobs that loggers once had could be replaced with jobs
in this new industry).

Chapter Two
How would this change from business owners of pollution
emitting factories toward a new society of business people
whose products are based on utilizing the environmentally sound
technology occur?
Visually, it may be a technology that at once appears
at once primitive and modern).
What would be the first complete electronic device grown? A
simple solar oscillator might be the first complete unit, but
before that it seems possible to develop electronic components like
the resistor and capacitor.
The first primitive schematic might have on it a photosynthet-
ic energy source for a battery and a hard cellulose-back support
similar in form to a circuit board. Complex reproductive organ
structure in embryo form shows a level of diversity that is most
complex in flora. So therefore, since we are trying to find such
complex structures in the present plant architecture, we would look
at these designs first in the DNA. By designing this as we see fit,
it may be possible, with post harvesting manipulations to not
get products that exist after harvesting as a single, stand-alone
device, such as a solar-powered l.e.d. clock, but to treat it in
various ways to acquire a organic components for a biodegradable
electronic device.
The main problem is the high charge of electricity voltage
required in electronics in general. Yet, presently this is not as
strong as it was in old electronics. There is a key however.
Chlorophyll is chemically similar to hemoglobin; hemoglobin
has iron in it. Iron is a metal, and we have the promise that
plants resemble electronic technology in this roundabout way.
After a system gets to a certain stage, the grafting in of other
devices, and a mimicry of the component system of current
electronics.
One idea is to manipulate genetic techniques in a seed system;
a seed sac with fertilization. The fertilization can be modified to
be more than just simple soil, since there are hundreds of elements
and compounds that don't constitute pollutants and can be consid-
ered biodegradable and non-toxic to plant, animal and human life.
Once a plant is mutated in a certain way for increased durability
then it could absorb more of a certain element into its structure
for that quality. Likewise when working with
increasing the amount of energy substances in photosynthesis, a
corresponding element would be needed from the soil.
One problem is size. It seems just as in non-biodegradable
technologies primitive devices were large that the first successful
experiments will be quite large. Yet, as things progress, the size
of the items will shrink, just like we are witnessing today!
The types of objects that will be built from these bio-degrad-
able technologies can be looked at as modular electronic compo-
nents.
If purposivefully mututaed plant DNA can be worked into
molecular electronics, all problems might in this new type of
electronics might be solved. And since these new devices are
hooked up with their own solar power adaptor, these new devices
won't require external energy, they will create it with sunlight
and soil.
What will the first schematics look like?
Its not a good idea to predicate what we will be able to
do in the future. The ideas in this treatise have to be expanded
by the mind of the reader. For instance, will a complete televi-
sion set one day be able to be grown?
Flower bearing plants can be seen as the most complex plant
genetics, pods on trees have complex structures.
Many of these units may still involve manufacturing, or post
harvesting manipulation. The genes do not have to always simply
grow completed units; rather groups of units that fit and work
together.
The first question to answer is what types of restructuring
can be done with plant DNA? The second question is how can it be
restructured?
The connection of circuits of different cell types for
different chemical processes may produce the differentiation we
require for this technology to take on the roles of electronic
devices.
Let's also work to substitute non-noxious elements into
electronics. Electronics has not been geared into ecological
parameters; ecology has not guided electronics thus far.
The chemicals needed to produce the technology we have now takes
place in vast pollution producing factories, the molding of plastic
cases throws out tons of carcinogens into the air and directly into
the presence of the factory workers when manufacturing them.


Chapter Three

Methods of manufacturing this technology are obviously
different, but so would be business and distribution of the
technology. In a lawn or one's backyard, one could grow exotic
fruitbearing technologies and market them in a type of Mom-and-Pop
type operation. They could be powered from the sun, and could draw
all the nutrients needed for the "factory" from the soil. So a
person could support an income from having these different
biodegradable machineries based on plant genetics in their
backyard.
If one had five different modular fruitbearing technologies in
their backyard one might be able to adjust them together each year
for different technologies. Perhaps it would have great value for
producing new hobbies.
(Imagine if the machines could reproduce and bear seeds, if
possible, in the distant future. A very big issue: would plants
naturally carry the mutation in their genes, and give off offspring
that would be exactly like them?)
To further help the imagination towards the end of recognizing
the possibilities of these ideas, I've thought up some future
biodegradable technology publications:

Popular Flower Technology
Fruitbearing Industries
Fruitbearing Technologies
International Catalogue of Component Fruitbearing Technologies
Catalogue of ElectroFruiting Technologies

Here is one examined in closer detail:
Popular Flower Technology: From murals on the side of buildings to
postcard size flower paintings, flower technology is the art of
utilizing flower genes to make living works of art. In my
imagination I see a type of typesetting machine that programs the
flower genetics in a mosaic setting to be whatever the programmer
intends.
The work could be frozen by spraying fixative on it. Painting
could shift in color by different genes controlling the images, by
the different climatic controls inside the plant genes.
Flower genetics could be grafted into tree genetics and then
electromagnetically shifted by remote control like impulses, thus
one could have a strong body of a tree and have an exquisite flower
technological painting surface for exhibition.
Several applications of this possible technology are immedi-
ately evident.
The technology that will be first fruitful are these applica-
tions: pulp machines producing pods for paper pulp, composition
boards, polymers produced for rubber and plastic-like materials,
aesthetic control of genetics for objects of beauty and hobbies,
production of household goods like soap dishes, combs, napkin
holders, letter openers, tableware, children's modular toys -- like
Legos, blocks, etc.) cotton articles and organic technology for the
increase of production of hemp, cotton, and foods; also genetic
devices for the increased production of every type of plant
products.
For instance, parsley trees, in which it will be able to
produce many pounds of parsley a year out of a ten square-foot plot
of ground. Assorted new inventions could be produced, such as a
solar 365-day-a-year calendar which produces images on a background
that was similar to a l.e.d. display, and a microcomputer screen
based on the same principle. Nothing has to be grown in one simple
stage but instead could be built of modular components which are
grown seperately. The screen could grown, and then added to the
keyboard and the CPU.
When the exploitation of genetic code was developed and we
were able to program it like we program on magnetic tapes or
electronic fields. The main apparatus of electronic progress such
as the tape recorder player which can be seen as early as the
phonograph and as late as the CD-ROM. We have to invent a biode-
gradable version, one that writes and reads in plant DNA. We need
to make an I/O device for plant genetic code and once that device
is invented, it will have a millions uses, just as the tape player
recorder (or disk drive, etc.) has now. And in electronics there
are other powerful inventions such as the amplifier. We need some
type of amplifier. We need some type of amplifier in plant
genetics. Perhaps some inventions will work in a different,
slower way, controlled by a photosynthetic-like process, but which
would still fulfill completely the need of the outdated device.

Chapter Four
The mass production mentality involved in pollution emitting,
resource depleting means, is continuing fairly unobstructed in many
areas. We can contribute to the "radicals" who are attempting to
curb this mentality by first realizing that it is only a "radical"
that is not concerned with the problem or who believes there
isn't much of a problem.
For me, I am affected on the level of beauty as well. I
don't like it when I am surrounded for dozens of square miles with
only a few patches of grass here and there or a token ten-foot high
tree. It can change! For one, hopefully the reader is now able to
come up with his own ideas by using the technology that I've
described. You may be thinking of great murals on building sides
built out of vegetation paneling that would make the air of any
city smell fresh. And that wouldn't mean taking up valuable city
real estate for a park. Our next parks would be vertical!
There are numbers of concerned scientists working towards
waste maintenance and recycling, alternate energies and the like,
but even their work is incomplete.
When they realize the full solution, outlined here, and when
they gear genetic engineering towards the ideas in this work, we
will have a platform for a much fresher earth, with the vibrant
presence of plants comforting us as it was in the beginning. But
these will be much different plants! Ecological awareness means
wanting to preserve vast amounts of species, instead of just a few,
to protect our total biosphere. It means having a deep love for
nature the way God created it.
We need to build a new ecologically friendly technology. Each
step that is not extraneous, but pragmatic, will be a point for the
score of life over that of death.
It is an incomplete science that has caused so many carcinogen
and other harmful pollutants to be produced. Some believe the
present manufacturing sciences have even put all life on the earth
in jeopardy.
It will only by be a more advanced science that the Earth can
be permanently removed from this jeopardy. Our technology is not
going to be taken away from us, like the Ecological radicals would
believe our technology is simply going to transform itself. I
want to use the word "clumsy" to describe our technological
innovations when they tend to have pollutive effects on the
environment or on our bodies.
It is not a spooky thing that this change must occur. The
change should not be seem in some type of New Age totalitarian
nightmare. It should be viewed as a gradual yet eventful scientif-
ic revolution, with the mechanisms of common sense and desire
motivating those who have seen the pain and damage the side effects
our technologies can cause. Perhaps by this new direction in
science we'll have products that will not only supply our present
needs but discover technological concepts beyond what we now
expect. Perhaps by working with plants and other aspects of our
environment which we, in the clumsy excitements of our first major
years of technological discovery were too primitive to take into
account, our science will take off in new ways and we
will ultimately begin to exhaust the well of scientific progress.
If industrial civilization ends, it ends, and we don't have to
concern ourselves with ecology. But if it does not end, we will
have to supply ourselves with the ongoing consumer demand. This
consumer demand can cause our natural environment to be greatly
damaged, but it doesn't have to. If these ideas are correct, the
more product we manufacture the more of a positive effect we will
have on the environment because of the carbon dioxide/oxygen
exchange.
It can be argued that the consumer drive does not depend
only upon the type of goods sold, or its purpse in our lives, but
on an inherent human need; the conquest of the item desired, and
the need to occupy one's time. This means that a new technology
can replace our past technology partially without having to
replace its exact function. If the five-billion people on earth
continue to expand at the same rate and the same manner, then
most of these people will need televisions, stereos, computers,
watches, etc.
Instead of an overwhelming concern regarding ecological
parameters we have continued our depletion of the increasingly
limited resources of the planet, and we continue to use many
sciences without focusing on developing new sciences that would
operate in a way corresponding to ecological parameters. There are
scientists that work in areas and create these negative impacts
without themselves searching for the more complex alternative.
Surely they are far from brilliant if they are not operating in
directions that sustain the health of the biosphere and humanity.
I might not be able to direct a manufacturer to produce
a profitable change in his factory today, but I believe through
this writing I can open up a definite horizon of what some future
technology will actually be like, a technology that is more
advanced than present technology in the way it is beneficent to
earth.

Comments on this file can be sent to P.O. Box 1006,
Seattle, WA 98111-1006, USA

--
Robert Pearson -- http://www.eskimo.com/~telical
ParaMind Brainstorming Software/Creative Virtue Press
Member of the "Good List" for Internet Antique Deals