Reading Wired.com reminds me regularly that truth really is stranger than fiction.
I haven't read Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man, but I'll take Wired's word for it about the shifting, changing tattoos that are a big part of the story (and tell the reader a story, too). New technology is making the implantation of silicon chips under the skin a very possible reality and this could turn our own epidermis into organic computer screens (they're already doing the work on mice, who won't be very stealthy if they're lighting up all over the place while trying to get at cheese).
While I'm not a fan of science fiction of the space opera variety, I do have an interest in the genre that alters the generic 'blood and guts' human being into 'blood and guts plus' - be they Neal Stephenson-style metaverse adventures (Snow Crash), the world of simulacra (Philip K. Dick's We Can Build You), or thrillers on film like Logan's Run and Dark City.
There is a whole style of tattooing out there that is best described as biomechanical, where the 'skin' is peeled back to reveal mechanical parts underneath - think Terminator, Arnie-style. Implantation of objects under the skin is a fairly controversial practice in body modification as it is (warning: the images at the link are not for the squeamish), but implanting LEDs that light up on command is totally wacky.
I can see it now: canny advertisers implant transmitters in their print advertising, so that when a person with LED implants walks by, they get to see an image or read something that promotes whatever is being advertised - not only will we be getting sold to, we'll also be providing free advertising at the same time! It would actually be possible to 'hack into' our bodies to make it quite literally say anything.
Far more chilling than anything a novel or screenwriter could accomplish, mad scientists no longer work in poorly-lit caves and suffer bad hair - they are funded by government and private capital grants, probably wear white coats and look very neat and tidy.
All we can count on to prevent this social apocalypse from marking The End Of Civilisation As We Know It is the knowledge that human beings are known for screwing things up quite royally most of the time. That's almost as certain as death or taxes, so I won't be needing to fashion an entire outfit from aluminium foil for a while.
Gatepost icon courtesy of runningafterantelope.
