Literature Review

Biohacks and Internet of Things Devices in Science Fiction

In this activity we will be determining whether the devices listed here are Internet of Things devices
or Biohacks or if they share elements of both.

1. Molly Millions eyes in William Gibsons Neuromancer and other books in the Sprawl Trilogy

Molly Millions is a hired bodyguard in a futuristic Cyberpunk world. She sports a number of
cybernetic enhancements, including a jacked up nervous system, giving her faster reactions, metal
claws which slide out from under her fingernails and a set of lenses implanted over the top of her
natural eyes. These allow what she sees to be transmitted and viewed in real time by her friends,
among other functions such as night vision and in one corner of her vision she can always see the
current time.

2. DNA Payment systems in Richard Morgans Altered Carbon

In Altered Carbon, characters can make payments electronically from their bank accounts by licking
their thumb and putting some saliva on a thumb pad on the machine which accepts the payment.
The DNA sample in the characters saliva identifies them, authorising the payment.

3. Virtual Reality Schools in Ernest Clines Ready Player One

In Ernest Clines vision of the future, High School students have the option of attending School in the
Metaverse, a virtual reality universe accessed through VR goggles and gloves. Many functions of the
students VR rigs that are not School related are disabled when they are attending school in the
Metaverse. The teachers at the Virtual Schools are also attending through VR rigs of their own.

4. Mass mind control in Neal Stephensons Snow Crash

The villain of Snow Crash uses a number of means of mass brainwashing to achieve his aims. Some of
these means include: a drug which works on individuals who are jacked in to the virtual reality
world and also in real life, in a similar manner to the way computer viruses and biological viruses can
sometimes be indistinguishable, subliminal aural brainwashing included in recordings of religious
hymns, a gibberish language spoken by those who are already brainwashed, which is infectious.

5. Acquisition of new bodies for the wealthy elite in Geoff Murphys Freejack

In Freejack, wealthy people of the future have the resources at their disposal to use time travel to
abduct people from the past in the moment before their death and, because they are legally
dead, transfer their own consciousness from their own aging bodies to the body of the dead
abducted individual, effectively achieving immortality.

6. Times up device in Michael Andersons Logans Run.

In Logans Run, the people of the future live in a paradise city but they have devices implanted in
their hands which flash red when they reach the age of 30, at which time they must submit to death
with a promise of the chance of resurrection, or be chased by the Sandmen, who will kill them. The
device serves no other purpose. The plot reveals that this promise of resurrection is empty.
7. Mass brainwashing in John Carpenters They Live

In They Live, the space aliens who have infiltrated Earths wealthy and powerful elite use signals
from television towers to alter what the general public sees. Billboards and television screens which
show messages like OBEY and CONSUME appear to be normal advertising. The actual messages
to obey and consume are thus powerful but not apparent to the victims.

8. Synthetic Memories in Total Recall

In Paul Verhovens 1990 film and the 2012 remake directed by Len Wiseman, it is deliberately made
unclear whether the protagonists adventures are part of an experience he has paid for at a dream
store or whether he is indeed saving humanity.