Today we want to share a disturbing look into the future of biotechnology or as some would call it, bio-hack. However, before run away in fear (or disgust), you have to know that it isn’t real. And to be honest, we thank god it isn’t. Anyways, the thing we want to tell you about is Project Oscar: The Modular Body. Noticed we put them in Italic? That’s because it was a fictional creation, a 56-video series about a disturbing project which involved 3D-printed modular body that can snap together like LEGO elements and powered by a battery pack.
The video(s) suggested humans can add limbs if they wanted to with this development and even making life from scratch without womb and traditional fertilization. Yikes. By the description, it is not quite that disturbing, but when you see the video of skinless organic ‘parts’ with chicken wing-like limbs struggling on the lab desk, it feels more like an abomination. No, wait. It is an abomination. Created by Dutch filmmaker and visual artist Floris Kaayk, Oscar looks like some animal that has been butchered, skinned and somehow brought back to life. Like a super gross Frankenstein if you will.
So as you can imagine, it is not something everyone can stomach. But the real kicker here is, that wasn’t the most disturbing part. The most disturbing part was, the level of realism of this blasphemes creation – thanks to how the videos were executed. The video series was made in such a way that mimics real research project video logs (as such they were presented in vlog style). It features a scientist, a fictional character by the name of Cornelis Vlasman, presenting to the world Project Oscar, detailing how it works and the concept behind it.
The videos are as surreal as they can get. So much as that when the series went online last year on YouTube, the videos had viewers debating its authenticity. Videos that succeed in having people debating if it is real or not, is a testimony of how real they were. The fact that the fictional researchers Cornelis Vlasman supposedly posted the videos also help in adding ‘credibility of authenticity’. It even has a pretty convincing ‘research website’ too.
In some parts, people want to believe the videos were real but on the other hand, they (including myself) hope this will not be an eventuality. Anyways, instead of digging into details and the moral principles that drove the videos, we suggest you take a look at the first video of the series which you can find embedded below. Before that, you may want to catch the “pitch video” above.
Image: YouTube.
