Quick Fire Questions (A Place to Ask and Answer)

[Warren_Paul]

Reminded me of the tracker in The Matrix, Springs. But that was a living machine that could avoid being digested. edit: wrong on details, they shot it with a machine, sucked it out of his belly button I believe.


I know in most sci-fi's I've seen they use injections, to plant it just under the skin, which are surgically removed later. But if you want it to be ingested instead then anything is possible really, but I'd wonder how much it would hurt if the tracker attached to tissue - quite a bit I'd imagine. But I'm no expert on the matter.


It could be biological, something that our body has difficulty digesting - like pepper.

[Vertigo]

I guess if the thing is smart it could clamp onto the lining of the stomach. I would say a very simple hook deployed half an hour after eating would do the job quite naturally, no other moving parts needed, just by the movements of the stomach snagging it. Though it might eventually cause an ulcer. As for removing it a signal could be sent to it making it detach from the hook. Maybe the hook is made of something that will breakdown and disolve after a few days/weeks/months/years.

Edit (Paul posted and gave me a thought) possibly just attaching might feel like you've got an ulcer. Though actually I suspect not if it is very small.

[David Evil Overlord]

If it's some sort of nanotech, then make it able to shift its shape. If it can match the shape of the molecules in the stomach lining, it should fit them like a jigsaw puzzle piece. No need for nasty, ulcer-making hooks.

Send a signal to tell the tracker to shift shape again, and it should drop off the stomach lining and make its way through the digestive tract and out into the...um, fresh air.

[Vertigo]

I'm not sure that Springs has nanotech in her story. Unless of course it's another story.

[David Evil Overlord]

Another brilliant idea sunk by a lack of technology indistinguishable from magic.

[Vertigo]

Not necessarily - I haven't seen the whole story and nanotech would offer better possibilities.

[springs]

Where I'm using it is that near the start of the story the antagonist has a tracker planted in prot., which allows her to launch a planetary attack to trap him. I thought, given he was on a base at the time of implantation, the easiest way it could be done was by ingestation. Then, once he/compatriots realise it's a trap, a full body scan carried out shows up the tracker and it gets removed, pretty easily (but not by the people who planted it)

In terms of technology, I'd expect them to have access to nano - it hasn't been a feature of the book but no reason it couldn't be. (although you might have to explain it to the author in very clear, simple, terms.... )

[David Evil Overlord]

Well, if I understand it correctly (no promises)...

Nanotech is very small technology. As in billionths of a millimetre small.

A promising line of medical research (I'm told) involves molecules that attach themselves to viruses because they have the right shape -- like a key in a lock -- and the virus can't infect you because this stupid molecule is in the way of all the "machinery" the virus uses.

It should be possible to design a tracker that can alter the shape of its outer shell to match the outer layer of the cells in the stomach lining like a key in a lock. Attached.

Then, to remove, make it change shape so it no longer matches. It should fall off the stomach wall, and gravity and the normal movement of stuff inside the digestive tract should make it move in the general direction of the lavatory. How quickly it moves depends on the needs of your story and the availability of laxatives.

[Esfires]

I'd be careful with just throwing nanotechnology of that level into your story to overcome a simple narrative obstacle. Nano tech is world changing stuff and if something like that existed in your universe I would expect to everywhere, to play a role in all aspects of life.

[springs]

I don't think it would fit anyway cos it sounds to me hard to unattach by prot plus I want a physical tracker to be removed as evidence - old fashioned ulcer enhancer sounds best fit
Ty

[Abernovo]

I have a yucky possibility answer, springs.

The problem with mechanical is that it is likely to pass through. If not, it could cause problems - stuck in the digestive tract, or, if programmed to attach, cause infection (foreign bodies and all that).

So... as it's futuristic, could you have a bio-engineered parasite, such as a tapeworm engineered not to grow too much but simply survive? It could have a specific radioactive signature (not entirely sure how that would work) or, perhaps a super-micro-nano burst transmitter implanted inside it.

Removal? Worming tablets?

[springs]

Oh, I like that, a worm on a full body scan has a sufficient ick moment to it. Nice one, and then I can do one of those alien moments and present it on someone's desk in a glass jar. Tequila, anyone? Cheers, Aber.

[Venusian Broon]

I was going to originally say, that if it was basically mechanical/electrical then it could programmed to find a nice pocket in the digestive tract (say the appendix) and the easiest 'way' of getting rid of it would be to blast the sucker with a big pulse of E-M radiation to fry it.

But then why not take a look at how real parasites work? I saw this on 'Embarrassing bodies' a description of how the hookworm* works. It likes to stay on leaves in water droplets (it's tiny) and when a person brushes past it eagerly attaches it self to the persons skin, burrows in (probably using an anesthestic so that the person doesn't notice), swims in the bloodvessels till it gets to the heart, then crosses over and heads for the lungs (yeuk!) When it reaches there it essentially lives there and lays its eggs, which are then of course breathed out by the person and falls on surfaces (say leaves) where the eggs develop into worms again - and so the cycle repeats.

So in your case, instead of eggs, why not have genetically modified hookworm that instead lay mechanical devices that can signal that they are there (like very small RFID chips, or perhaps even bigger more convoluted things that can really signal back properly) - so that the victim just leaves a cloud of 'here I am' sticky notes everywhere he goes (perhaps have them timestamped at moment of laying and release, so you can reconstruct exactly where he went and when.)

Why do it this way? I suppose because at first as the hookworms are 'natural' any scans for anything mechanical or electrical would be negative, as there is a definite period before the worms start laying. Then hopefully by this stage the person tagged will have been seen as 'clean' and no one will notice the tags being breathed out and applied liberally to all surfaces.

To get rid of them: A very heavy dose of antibiotics and some sort of breathing apparatus possibly so that as the hookworms are being killed off, any devices produced are being collected and destroyed (oh and you'd have to clean the base thoroughly as well...)

*I think it is hookworms, This is from memory.

[Christian Nash]

Anyone got any examples of well written steampunk novels?

[Venusian Broon]

I liked 'The Difference Engine' by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. But steampunk is not really my thing, and I think it's a pretty obvious one that everyone seems to know.