Digging back into my archives, I found this scrap of an idea from a file from 1994.
This was an idea that developed from a request by a friend of mine who was working on a short film. The film was a spy thriller to take place in the offices of a microchip company. His request was for me to come up with a name and a logo for this fictitious company.
Through word association, I came up with “Fish & Chips” which I thought had some merit to it, but his laughs made me feel he thought otherwise.
To rationalize my idea, I came up with a company history to explain the name. See, the company is named Fish & Chips because not only does it produce microchips for computers, but also manufactures the only “artificial” fish in the world. Why artificial fish? Well, with all of those corporations and hotels featuring pools of exotic fishes, there is a lot of upkeep necessary to keep the fish alive and healthy. But if the fish were actually “androids” and moved by aid of implanted microchips and circuitry, then no upkeep would be necessary at all. Power for the circuitry could be supplied by little calculator batteries. The fish could be disposable as well, since they would be assembly-line cheap.
But it was just a suggestion. I didn’t think Potato Chips would have quite the same impact, nor could I find a way to justify a potato crop growing in the company’s lobby.
No doubt, someone has already come up with AI-powered, artificial Koi, if not other fish, by now.