Remarkable, pulsating creature

I really enjoy artificial life. Simulcra, robots, golems, androids, AI, etc., they are all pretty amazing to me. The more of a decent simulation of life, the better.

At work this week I got to see a pretty amazing life-faker. I was underground, pushing a cart of delicate equipment from one sun-forsaken godless place to another, when I ran into Dennis. He needed help with a dental chair, so I accompanied him to the basement level of the Phillips Wangensteen building. We took an elevator further down than I've ever had to professionally and then got out, walking a short distance to an unassuming door with a buzzer.

We waited for what seemed like a long time before being let into a very sterile and quiet clinical research area, with a long hallway adjoined with a big and comfortable waiting room. We were led in by a tall and lanky woman with something of a patrician's demeanor. She led us a short distance down the hall, to the first of some 8 identical operating theatres. The first thing that struck me as odd about the room was it's enormous size, with tons of extra room, not like any surgical suite I've seen.

The second, and most interesting thing was this remarkable, pulsating creature laying on an operating table wearing human clothing. It was breathing, and it appeared to have a heartbeat, blood-pressure, and all the other "vitals" of a regular human being. In fact, it was attached to machines that gave constant readouts of it's "vitals." The breathing was a steady, comforting noise, and definitely made me think of a real living thing, or kind of a Darth Vaderish breathing apparatus at least.

The creature had skin made of a dark beige or dark khaki rubber. It had no discernible eyes, simply light recessions in it's mask of rubber. It's mouth opened and closed slightly with it's regular breathing. The clothing it wore looked like a patient's gown to me, and it's vital monitors were attached in all of the right places. The researcher instructed us on where to place the Dental Chair, which we set down efficiently, right next to this remarkable simulcra.

On our way out of this ultra-modern world, I noticed that on either side of the operating theater were big bay mirrors. They were clearly one-way mirrors, the sort that people watch through secretively. Dennis told me about a show he saw on the Discovery Channel regarding the simulations using these things, and I have to admit I was in awe of the whole process and the whole world. I'm amazed by human ingenuity.

Song of the Day: "FTW"-Xiu Xiu