A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 21

This is the fourth year in a row I’ve run this series in April.

Today’s story idea: Soft Robots Can Camouflage Themselves:

Robots don’t have to be expensive, boxy, blocky, jerky hunks of metal.

In fact, the robots of the near future will be cheap, soft-bodied and octopus-like, capable of changing colors to blend in with their surroundings, at least if the Pentagon and Harvard University scientists have anything to do with it.

Prototypes of such soft-bodied, camouflaging robots have been successfully demonstrated and tested on different types of terrain, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon arm responsible for many of the military’s most far-flung scientific endeavors (including, back in the 1960s, the prototype of the Internet itself.)

DARPA on Thursday published a video of one such robot, which can be seen below:

“Soft robot design is certainly inspired by nature,” said Stephen Morin, one of the lead Harvard researchers behind ‘bot, in an email to TPM. “Specifically, creatures like starfish, squid, and octopi. There is no reason why robots should only adopt the familiar shapes of mammals, as many hard robots do. Other designs will certainly have advantages; like a tentacle over an arm. That said, we also believe in building robots that don’t follow body plans found in nature. We don’t want to limit ourselves.

Okay, now check out this video of another soft robot:

I don’t know about you, but my mind immediately goes to Frankenstein: Brilliant scientist working on cutting edge soft robot technology, brings to life a ‘monster’ that looks like that creepy creeping creature… and oh yeah, it can do camouflage. Toss in intelligence, the ability to grow and even replicate…

Cue mayhem and havoc.

We’ve seen this potion before: Genius + Hubris + Wanting to be like God + Discoveries = Shit hitting the fan. Whether it’s The Fly or King Kong… heck, go back to the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament. It’s a bad combo plate that makes for good cinema.

I can see how a renegade soft robot experiment could end up giving humankind a hard time.

How about you? What would you do with this concept?

Each day this month, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Gender bend, genre bend, what if. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are all valuable skills for a writer to develop.

See you in comments. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.

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