Your briefing on recent feats of engineering in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) cannot but invite fresh leaps of imagination (“The Fly’s a Spy,” November 3, 2007). If the miniaturization of UAVs has already approached the size of a fly, why not use real flies for spying? In addition to cameras, flies would have to be fitted with radio-operated behavioral controls. All the rest has been there for millions of years. Add a dash of genetic engineering, which would improve behavioral control, and your spy-fly would surely be well ahead of anything engineers could concoct from scratch no matter how long they try. Of course, the next leap of imagination shifts to the development of unmanned creeping vehicles (UCVs), where fly-catching spiders are waiting for a new lease on life. UCVs would hunt for UAVs, thus ushering a new step in assisted evolution. Anyhow, the feats of engineering you report in your briefing already sound like mere beginnings.

Addendum I (April 4, 2009)

The last issue of Technology Review (Vol. 112, No. 2, 2009) carries a story about the research of Michael Maharbiz, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has already implanted all sorts of electronic gear into a flower beetle. By remotely delivering jolts of electricity to the insect’s brain and wing muscles, he can make the cyborg beetle take off, turn, or stop mid-flight. His team has already modified beetles during the pupal stage, so that their electronic implants are invisible in adulthood, which is essential for covert missions. Mission accomplished!

Addendum II (September 18, 2011)

The Technology Review (Vol. 114, No. 5, 2011) carries yet another story about Michael Maharbiz. Having mastered the flower beetle, he is now working on miniaturizing the electronics to control smaller insects, such as houseflies. Mission accomplished, indeed. And the original title of the article from The Economist comes full circle. For better or worse, the old fly on the wall is nigh.