Well you’re unlikely to see anyone out on the street wearing this, but creators Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta hope that just seeing it will get you thinking about food production in the future. See, the Algaculture Symbiosis Suit is seeded with algae which is then fed the CO2 and water vapour that you exhale throughout the day through that freaky looking mouthpiece. Walk around in the sun a bit, and you’ve created the conditions for the growth of food which you could theoretically eat later. The end game here, at least for Burton and Nitta, is a future where we seem to gain some “super-powers”:

It proposes a future where humans will be enhanced with algae living inside new bodily organs, allowing us to be semi-photosynthetic. Almost enabling us to become plant-like by gaining food from light. As such, we will be symbionts (meaning that both entities entirely depend on each other for survival), entering into a mutually beneficial relationship with the algae.

So… that’s what’s in store for the human race? We’re going to be… “plantimals”? That, by the way, is a word coined by scientists Debora MacKenzie and Michael Le Page who wrote about photosynthetic creatures, or what they call “plantimals” in the New Scientist (2010.) Granted, it’s not an exciting superpower, but it certainly is a practical one. Suck it, Bane!

[ Product Page ] VIA [ DVice ]