The idea and motivation for commencing the "solar sunflower" research was just one of the many elegant and empowering ideas that were generated by the delegates to the Human First! conference hosted by the Choo Institute in Ushogbo in the summer of 2025.
The concept of a motile, vegetable-based (and hence self-replicating) power source combines ideas from genetics, computational theory and molecular engineering with modern geography and social theory.
The concept is in advanced feasibility study under the watchful eye of Professor Wickremasinghe, the projects principal investigator, but is already producing promising results, with small-scale seedlings flourishing in one of the Choo Institute's specifically-shielded research "Boden hyperspheres".
"We are very hopeful, and excited, that the modified genome we have created will meet with all of the requirements as set out in the functional specification" says Elizabeth Wickremasinghe, CTO and grandmother-in-residence of the Choo Institute. "We are confident that the prospect of liberating human kind from the shackles of fossil fuel and the Bulk Economy is an achievable goal - possibly as soon as 10 years."
The genome of the Solar Sunflower was once terrestrial but has since been greatly engineered by the skilful manipulations of Choo Institute engineers, as well as an army of bioengineered replicators.
Whilst not the first "product" to have emerged from the Choo Institute labs, it is notable for the sophistication and breadth of what it can achieve.
Mal and the Deeper Vision board of the Choo Institute are all avid bloggers. Here's what they have to say.
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