Daneel Olivaw is a 30 something scientist. His speciality interest is in cybernetics and it’s implementation in the field of human cyborgs. He is particularly interested in the possibilities of connecting humans to the Internet by means of implants which control and enable a person’s nervous system and brain to be connected permanently to the internet.
He is excited by the possibilities that open up for the development of global human knowledge and individual development offered by everyone being connected to everyone else permanently in an “always online” environment.
In the last 2 years his research has led to the foundation of the “Vesalius Project” named after the 16th century anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius. Vesalius is recognised as being the founder of modern human anatomy. He was one of the first physicians to teach anatomy by dissecting actual human corpses as opposed to animal carcasses that had mostly been used up to this point.
The Vesalius Project received it’s initial funding from venture capitalist named Calvin Powell. Daneel used this money, along with Calvin’s help, to develop a set of implants that would enable Daneel to connect to the Internet and upload live streams of his conscious and sub-conscious thought in a permanent data stream. It would also enable him to access the Internet and have the results implanted in his brain much the same way as imagined “thoughts” occur in most humans.
He has a chatroom on the internet which he is connected to 24/7 and through this he has a loyal band of fans led by the infamous hacker Lod/h amongst others.
An unexpected side effect of these implants was that Daneel contracted a “Virus” from the Internet, which rendered parts of his body unusable. To overcome this he developed synthetic replacements for the useless parts of his body. To date these consist of his
- right arm and hand
one ear (left)
one eye (unspecified) and
both his legs
It was because of these implants that one of the most terrifying episodes of his life occurred:
During a normal experiment into transportation using the Internet, Daneel found himself in the headquarters of the “Creature wrestling federation” when his intended destination was meant to be the Caribbean for a well earned holiday. It is still unclear whether this was an accident or part of a purposeful action on the part of Calvin. Calvin mysteriously logged off of the project control system moments after Daneel’s arrival at the Cw headquarters and has not been heard of since then.
Daneel is now trapped with no other way of escape other than by conventional, physical means.
He now finds himself embroiled in a competition to find a future creature wrestling star from a motley group of freaks. Daneel very much sees himself as an outsider, however he realises that he has to compete and win this competition if he is ever to be able to escape and return to Vesalius project headquarters.
This is where we pick up the story….
Links:
http://www.textfiles.com/magazines/LOD/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg#Individual_cyborgs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesalius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Warwick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann
http://www.glogger.mobi/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EyeTap