Our battle for control over the behavior of silicon-based life forms begins with the battle to control their identities.

FORBES: Cyber Security And The Rise Of The Silicon-Based Life Form

Rather than taking control of us, as the man-versus-machine plotline would have it, silicon-based life forms can actually help us better control them.

FORBES: Cyber Security And The Rise Of The Silicon-Based Life Form

In Silicon Valley, paranoia around maintaining fervent control is even higher than other industries.

FORBES: Zuckerberg Wants An Open Society; Just Not Within His Own Company

Dr Lin is already testing a waveguide designed to steer light with a wavelength of 1.5 microns, and he is also working on three-dimensional waveguides made of silicon, which will provide almost total control over the path the light takes, and make really complex optical circuits possible.

ECONOMIST: New-age crystals

This method allows better control of the thicknesses of the silicon and glass layers, but the etching is time-consuming and requires the costly sacrifice of a wafer for each one that is made.

ECONOMIST: Chip technology

But the Silicon Valley veteran gave in, figuring technology prospers when you cede control--and how.

FORBES: WAP music

The venture capitalists dotted along just one street in Silicon Valley--Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park--control around a third of America's independently-raised venture capital, and around a sixth of the world's total.

ECONOMIST: Silicon Valley

To a standard silicon layout from ARM, Luminary adds functions like Ethernet connections, flash memory and motion-control hardware.

FORBES: Smarter, Cheaper