The Scenario (fictitious)

“Well what have we got here?” a sinister voice said from the darkness, trying to surprise and startle me. “I think we have some fresh meat. Hand over your money, honkie. If you’re lucky me an my friends might let you live. Are you feeling lucky? "

I had been walking alone, minding my own business, on a warm summer night. I was walking through a park. The group of young ethnic teenage males must have somehow thought that I wouldn’t see them for some reason. Were they daft? Of course I saw them. Of course I knew they were there. I’d seen them from Owl One.

“You boys better go home to your momma” I told them. "I’m in no mood to be bothered. I’m not bothering you so leave me alone"

"Who are you to be telling us what to do?” the first speaker bellowed " Now I’m going to kill you."

His gang thought likewise. They all had weapons, mostly guns and knives. It didn’t appear that they had anything dangerous nor that they even knew how to use what they had. Not from the way they were holding them anyway.

_"I’m about out of patience”_I told them. "If I was in a bad mood I could take that as being a credible threat. I’m telling you for the last time to leave me alone. If you don’t have a momma or she wouldn’t claim you, and I can’t say that I’d blame her, this park is big enough for all of us. Now go away and leave me alone. I won’t tell you again.”

That only made them more angry. One of them aimed a gun at me.

That was a big mistake.

My Owls had were orbiting above their heads. Owls fly on silent wings. You WILL not hear them. The thug-let pointing the gun at me never did. He never saw the Owl. In fact he never saw anything ever again. One of my owls swooped out of the night and plucked his eyes out of his head with it’s talons, then ate them.

That must have hurt. The thug-let didn’t just drop the gun but rather he tossed it into the air while screaming, dancing around and getting blood everywhere. On the one hand it was very annoying to see him make such a mess and to be so loud. On the other hand it was very considerate of him to toss the gun into the air since I had another Owl close by to catch it. Now I've got a new gun to make up for the trouble of dealing with them. I suppose it all evens out.

“Who’s next?” I asked them after the first thuglet exsanguinated, stopped screaming and fell down. Soon he quit moving and just lay there. " I won’t be so gentle next time. Who among you wants to threaten me?"

Apparently not a one among them did. They vanished.

I continued my walk in the park. It was a nice summer night and the honeysuckles were in bloom.

***

The Science (real)

The Technology is Potential

Radio Repeaters

Back in the old days ham radio operators, sometimes called radio amateurs built what was at the time called “repeaters”. A repeater would receive a signal, amplify it then rebroadcast.

That principle is still used in modern day cell phones with refinements. The cell tower receives a signal from the cell phone, then on the basis of certain data attached to the signal it either amplifies and rebroadcasts or more likely it inserts the signal into a communication network which routes the signal to another cell tower, anywhere in the world, which then broadcasts to the intended recipient, usually another cell phone. (or a computer)

Miniaturization

The early repeaters had limited capacity, used a lot of power,were fairly large and were fairly expensive both to buy and to operate on a per signal basis.. Perhaps as large as a loaf of bread, or several. Since then they have become MUCH smaller, require much less power to operate, and MUCH much cheaper to use. Ham radio was the hobby of, if not the rich then at least the fairly well off. Today’s cell phones are ubiquitous. Almost everyone has them, or several.

There is really no limit to how small they can become. Atomically precise manufacturing techniques could theoretically make them the size of large molecules. It is certainly no stretch of the imagination to imagine them to be the size of a neuron or smaller.

Direct Neural Interface.

There is no theoretical reason to reject the idea of certain nerves being embedded with nano-repeaters. The term,‘Direct Neural Interface’ has already been coined to describe it. In fact primitive direct neural interfaces have already been built. Imagine being able to use the internet with your brain, with surround sound and full visual if you wanted to.

CyberInsects

Bugs with electrodes inserted into their brains. Actually the word ‘brain’ is giving them too much credit. Technically insects don’t have brains but they have a clump of neurons that do the same thing that a brain does....mostly.

Researchers and hobbyists have been playing with cyber-insects (CI) for some time. Some of the CI’s can be “operated” by remote control, much like drone.

There is no theoretical reason that with the continual advance in Micro-miniturazation and understanding how the nerves and brains work that implants will not become more and more sophisticated.

As mentioned earlier, hobbyists are doing this NOW. They will only get better and more sophisticated.

Vision is transmitted by nerve impulsed from the eye to the visual cortex, or whatever is being used for one, in all animals that have eyes. Tiny micro-scopic repeaters could be implanted, using what ever method, in those nerves , then routed to a tiny transmitter and beamed to a receiver. There is no reason that receiver could not be another animal, such as a human.

Sound: Ditto.

We’ve all heard the old saying . “I’d like to be a bug on the wall when.....”.

That will be possible. If cyber-insects are possible so will cyber-anything be possible also. Owls, dogs, cats and other animals should be possible also. In a WORST CASE SCENARIO people could be zombie-fied and turned into meat puppets. (shudder)

Muscles are controlled by nerve impulses. If a person can type on a keyboard, such as I’m doing right now, then it’s no great leap to think that one day it wouldn’t be possible to control a fly, or an owl in flight by thinking about it.

Criminals tend to be rather stupid. Their live will be much more dangerous.