Happenings

Sci-Fact or Fiction Challenge

Is this writing fact or fiction?  (You have to guess without Googling the text!)  Place your bets by registering to comment or tweet me.  Author and book identification to come tomorrow.

One of Maharbiz’s students called up their custom- designed “Beetle Commander” software on a laptop. He issued the signal. The antennae jutting out of the beetle’s backpack received the message and passed it along to the circuit board, which sent electricity surging down the wire and into the beetle’s optic lobe. The insect’s wings began to flap. The empty white room the researchers used as an airfield filled with a buzzing sound, and the bug took flight. The beetle flew on its own— it didn’t need any further direction from human operators to stay airborne—but as it cruised across the room, the researchers overlaid their own commands. They pinged the basalar muscles, prompting the beetle to weave back and forth through the room, as if flying through an invisible maze. It wouldn’t have looked out of place going up against a stunt pilot at an air show. Another jolt of electricity to the optic lobe, and the beetle dropped out of the air and skittered across the tile floor.