The trouble with Lichen. novel by John Wyndham and Short circuit movie Literature review

The trouble with Lichen. novel by John Wyndham and Short circuit movie - Literature review Example â€Å"The trouble with Lichen.† by John Wyndham. The plot of the novel takes the reader from the lab where the doctor, Saxover Francis, with his assistant, Brackley Diana extract the drug from the Lichen to the time when she has to make a run for her life when the secret about the drug leaks into society and her life is threatened. She eventually fakes her own death in order to avoid the death. Ironically, her product is actually supposed to avert death- at least for three hundred years. The movie is about a company that develops a set of five robots. The robots were originally intended to carry out some mundane activities like playing of musical instruments and others. They are named number one through to number five. After Newton Graham has finished developing the robots, he goes to demonstrate them to the other company at the grounds. His demonstration is however abruptly interrupted by a storm. It was while he was still evacuating the robots that one of them was struck by electric current. The electric current causes a â€Å"short circuit† and ultimately changes the instruction codes in the robot. This, as we later find out, gives the robot life. The two pieces are both science fictions that are somewhat related. They both predict on future innovations that actually took place many years down the line. Even though man has not yet found a solution to ageing that would make him attain the age of here hundred years, there are at least some drugs that are being used to control ageing to a significant degree. Consequently, the prediction made in short circuit have also come to see the light of day. There are much technological advancement in the ICT field that can be comparable to the ideas propagated in short circuit. The main reason why I chose this novel and this movie is the fact that they made some interesting predictions about the innovations in the future and the innovations eventually came to be. The other reason is the fact that they both took a realistic approach as far as how society responds to new inventions is concerned. The Trouble with Lichen This is a novel about a young lady who is working as a biochemist and wh o in the course of her day to day duties, stumbles upon a certain strain of Lichen that can actually be used to reverse the aging process in humans. It is from this Lichen that the novel draws its title, â€Å"trouble with lichen.† Supposedly, this strain of lichen can be used to lengthen the lifespan of an average human being to anything from two hundred up to three hundred years. The author of the novel approaches the issue by speculating on how the wider society would deal with such a discovery. There are two main characters in the plot of the book. The first is Brackley Diana and the second one is Saxover Francis. Both are biochemists who are involved in research. Saxover is a doctor and Diana is his employee. They are doing independent experiments to investigate the characteristics of certain strains of Lichen. Diana stumbles on a life transforming discovery when she notices that a certain strain of the lichen prevents milk from turning sour. The strain of Lichen that sh e discovered was rare and it actually originates form East Asia. She works tireless with the help of Francis Saxover and two eventually manage to extract a new drug from the Lichen. They call this new drug antigerone. Antigerone can be used to slow down ageing in the human body. Francis decides to secretly use the medicine on his family members and on himself to prevent their ageing. On the other hand, Diana sets up a spa and cosmetic business and starts using the product on a number of rich and