24 – Doctor Beetle

The US army has a notoriously runaway military budget which spends money on all manner of hairbrain projects.  One of the most bizarre projects was “Project Aesclepius” – a project to somehow create mobile field medics who would reach soldiers in places inaccessible to troops.  The project was cancelled before it went into mass production but the single result of it was Doctor Beetle. A genetically engineered beetle, about the size of a rabbit, he has added spinarets near his jaws capable of producing silk strong enough to stitch up wounds.  The knowledge to do so is provided by a tiny AI which provides Dr Beetle with all his medical knowhow.  Unfortunatly, although he is a very good field surgeon capable of stitching up wounds to the level of the best human surgeon, he is an appallingly bad diagnostician in regard to anything that isn’t a physical injury, and at a cost of $5 billion to produce him, there are not likely to be any more of him anytime soon.

Category: 2011, Scifi