Radio Controlled, Living Moth Zombie Cyborgs

Found via Warren Ellis.

Cornell University researchers have succeeded in implanting electronic circuit probes into tobacco hornworms as early pupae. The hornworms pass through the chrysalis stage to mature into long-lived moths whose muscles can be controlled with the implanted electronics.

So, they’ve invented a cybug. How long before I get my antenna implant? Anybody read any Kurt Vonnegut lately, like The Sirens of Titan? I’m just saying. I can see it now: I come home one day to find a tobacco hornworm moth in my chair, smoking cigarettes, trying to convince me that they’re really not that bad for me after all. He will be successful, of course, because I cannot and will not argue with a bug, even if they are cybernetically stronger and faster and smarter than me. It’s a matter of principle. After he convinces me to buy a carton of Marlboros we’ll hang out smoking while Dr. Screws comes to give me my antenna implant.