Has the world gone Sedgwicks crazy? - By Dr Eric Ink
Not since the advent of Bakelite has the scientific community been as excited about the future prospects of a new product; in this case Sedgwicks. But what are Sedgwicks, and what implications will they have for us and our every day lives? Dr. Eric Ink finds out more.
There is excitement brewing in the science industry, due to a new wonder of the scientific world. Government agencies, the electronics and information industries, agriculture and even the business community are excited by the way this marvellous new item for consumption. I am of course talking of the Sedgwick, which is inescapable at the moment; be it on the news, talk shows, or down the pub, everyone is talking about them. Why is everyone so excited, and how will they make our lives better? I travelled around the UK to find out.
Sedgwicks were first developed by the Total Home Electronics Corporation in 1994 as an aid to solving complicated hyper-fractions, and first found fame when NASA used them to great success on the 'Path-finder' Mars project. In the last few years the full potential of the Sedgwick has been realised, and they are now being developed as future alternatives to microprocessors and gasoline, among many other projects.
I met up with Dr. Misra, who worked with the original development team at THE in the nineties. He now works for Milo & Minderbinder Enterprises as head of Sedgwick development. "It's all very exciting," he says as he sips his coffee, "we never realised what we were on to at THE until NASA started taking an interest, now everyone wants a piece of the Sedgwick. No one can afford to be left behind". Is Dr Misra sure that Sedgwicks aren't just another 'flavour of the month' like super-conductors, nano tubes or the internet, and will be quickly forgotten when the next discovery comes along? Misra laughs at the very idea; "Sedgwicks are already common spread, everywhere, silently protecting us," he enthuses, "the 'Son of Star Wars' will go far to proving that".
And he's right; only this month Airbus announced that their new super airliner the A380 will use a Sedgwick based flight control system, and the new wave of fire prevention measures in new affordable housing is based on Sedgwick composites as well as being the computer base to the Star Wars satellite network. "Of course Sedgwicks could be used to make the new breed of 'smart weapons'" insists the MoD's Colonel Cathcart, "it could revolutionise modern warfare". So Sedgwicks could lead to a Terminator 2 style "sky net" system with the potential to become too big for its boots? "Yes," admits Cathcart, "but a system like that is a long way off, and thanks to lesions learned by the Terminator series, we should be able to avoid such mistakes." That certainly puts my mind at rest.
So it is clear that the uptake of the Sedgwick by industry has far reaching implications for us all. Once it was unthinkable to believe that hyper-fractions could be solved with such ease, that a satellite network could help delay a nuclear onslaught for a few minutes, or that a huge metal potential death trap holding 500 people could take the skies, but the Sedgwick makes it a reality.
If you would like to contact Dr Eric Ink then please email him on eric_ink42@hotmail.com
