What happens when charisma becomes a biotech upgrade?

Content warning

None

The short story

“Welcome on board!”

A drab looking woman in a too tight grey suit ushered me towards an egg-shaped vessel. A few voices carried over from across the dark hangar. I thought I heard a child say something in a whiny tone.

The woman followed my gaze: “The privacy of our clients is our biggest priority.” The inside of the shuttle was bright and inviting. I could feel it vibrate as I stepped inside. The little hairs on my arms rose. At first glance, it only contained a large, comfortable looking travel chair. The window to the side showed a simulated view. We seemed to be gliding smoothly above rose tinted clouds.

I let myself slump deeply into the seat, nervously playing with my wedding ring. The location of the clinic was hidden. I hadn’t assumed they would let me get a glimpse of my surroundings on the way.

Barely looking at me, she rattled off her script: “Have a pleasant journey! I will see you at our destination. The estimated travel time will be just over two hours. Please don’t hesitate to call us, if you need anything.”

Before I could ask how exactly I could call them, she had already turned around and left. The door silently materialised behind her. The shuttle was moving now, the vibrations increasing ever so slightly.

The window began to show a movie. I had seen the promotional clip before, when my husband forwarded it to me. For a brief moment, I felt panic. What if I needed the – then I saw that there was a subtly pulsing green light in the back of the pod. They hadn’t forgotten I was human, after all.

I focused back on the clip. A very attractive doctor smiled brightly: “… then we decoded the chemical signal that allows us to manipulate the structure of …” I tuned out of the monologue again. My husband had made his fortune in biotech. He was very excited about the procedure.

I only had a vague grasp of the technology behind it. The treatment was still experimental, as far as I knew, only a few people had undergone it. Mostly other tech billionaires, who had a taste for risk. My thoughts wandered back to the hangar. What were the motives of the little boy’s parents?

My husband had tried to explain it to me in simple terms: “Imagine you’re a moth. You are nocturnal, and you rely on the moon for orientation. You grow and grow and one day, boom, you’re a full-sized moth, ready to procreate. Now your only goal is to find a mate. To navigate, you look for the moon.

Your moth mates release pheromones to tell you to come and find them. But there is a problem. There are huge, artificial moons that exert a strong pull on you. Now you try to get close to the super moon and forget about all your other goals.”

I remembered the little brown moths that we would, on rare occasions, find on our parents porch. I remembered their fuzzy antennae and delicate structure. I remembered seeing some of them circle our porch lights until they died of exhaustion.

“So, this is what they did with the procedure. They identified what acts as a super moon for us. To achieve that, they figured out what chemical signals are necessary to exert a similar kind of pull on others. Imagine –” he said, “how useful this will be, for example, during a negotiation. You’re in a meeting and can sway any decision in your favor. Just imagine all the possibilities!”

I could feel his excitement still, it was infectious. Yes, the possibilities were endless. I wondered if the child’s parents wanted to set it up for a successful life. It was all very hush-hush, but I had heard that it had worked out exceptionally well for those who had done the treatment. No more awkward social situations, no more being invisible. I would become a super moon.

The view out of the window had changed back to the peaceful clouds. I felt my muscles relax. I had had my doubts about the procedure, initially. But the longer I sat looking at the clouds, changing from pink, to gold, back to pink, the less I remembered those worries. I wondered what my new life would be like. Influence, attention, admiration, devotion.

Suddenly the vibrations slowed, until they stopped completely. The window switched off and within seconds, the travel hostess emerged in the pod. “Please follow me, we are ready for you now, she said with an icy voice.

The procedure was a blur. After I was guided into a white surgery hall, I only remembered the stern eyes of the doctor, before they faded too.

I woke up in a different room and felt confused. What time was it? My mouth felt dry. I looked down at my hands and thought they looked different, more slender, more elegant than I remembered.

I was led out of the clinic again. As I approached the waiting shuttle, I saw the travel hostess emerge.

“Well, hello there!” , she chirped brightly. She looked at me and I could feel that her gaze linger a bit longer than what was considered appropriate. As I walked into the vessel, the hostess took my hand, again leaving it on mine a bit too long. “You must be feeling well!”, she said, still holding my hand, looking at me warmly. I feel almost intoxicated from her intense attention.

“I am.”

This story was originally written in English and translated to German by the author using DeepL.

The paper

Halloy, J., Sempo, G., Caprari, G., Rivault, C., Asadpour, M., Tâche, F., … & Deneubourg, J. L. (2007). Social integration of robots into groups of cockroaches to control self-organized choices. Science, 318(5853), 1155-1158. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1144259

Connection between story and paper

The inspiration for this story came from a research paper that I came across a while back and found really compelling. The study is about cockroaches. Yes, really! A team of researchers investigated whether robots disguised as cockroaches using a clever trick could influence the behaviour of a group of real insects.

Funnily enough, the robot cockroaches looked nothing like their real counterparts. Coated with the scent of male insects, they scurried around as you would expect cockroaches to. They didn’t even need to look perfect; the animals just needed to be able to smell them. I found the idea that robots could influence insects’ group decision-making interesting.

The experiment showed that, despite cockroaches preferring darker shelters, the robots were able to get the animals to follow them when they were programmed to prefer a lighter shelter. Towards the end of the paper, the authors speculate: “Animal societies could be one of the first biological systems where autonomous artifacts cooperate with living individuals to solve problems.”

The author

Dr. Anna Henschel works as an editor. She holds a doctorate in human-robot interaction and is a multi-award-winning science journalist.