4 ms·

The cynic in me expects to click this and find an article about trees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifk6iuLQk28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifk6iuLQk28

agumonkey 8y ago
The more I know about biology the less I enjoy (applied and commercial) science because .. well biology does much of it right now.
- Scriptor 8y ago
  I bought some houseplants a bit back and it's been fascinating to see how quickly they grow. The vast majority of that new mass literally comes from thin air.
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    Then think about the internals, the subtleties of cellular matrices. It's as beautiful as processor manufacturing, if not more, and right before your eyes all around. I laugh yellow~ when people dream of robotics.. when I see an annoying mosquito, I look at how thin all this is and yet it lives, flies, perceive the world quite a bit ... To an extent I think the future will just be the same old past except we'll now understand nature a bit more. I hope so.
    - tabs_masterrace 8y ago
      Dragonflies is where its at. These guys supposedly have one of the best eye vision of all species. Now compare that thing with flying camera drones. Anything we can build is so much inferior to what a Dragonfly can do.
      - aaaaaaaaaab 8y ago
        I’d doubt that. Compound eyes have inferior resolution compared to mammal/reptile/bird eyes. E.g. a compound eye with the angular resolution of your current eyes would be about the size of your head. Edit: nope, even bigger: >To see with a resolution comparable to our simple eyes, humans would require very large compound eyes, around 11 metres (36 ft) in radius. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye
  - Pxtl 8y ago
    My favourite for this are South American tillandsia. They have no roots. They just sit on a tree branch and eat air.
    - Scriptor 8y ago
      Yeah, it's neat how roots mostly just bring in phosphates, nitrates, and water. Incidentally, carnivorous plants only get their phosphates and nitrates from whatever they trap. All of the actual carbon in all plants come from the air or from dissolved CO2 in the water.
- s_kilk 8y ago
  There's a certain fetish for technology that blinds us to the obvious power of biological systems. We end up chasing pipe dreams of self-assembling materials while ignoring the already-existing self-assembling materials right in front of us.
  - taf2 8y ago
    It’s called a god complex? But the pragmatic reasoning is that what we build we can control more so than what nature has evolved. If for example, I can build a robot to pick up my trash can and walk it down to the street once a week and it’ll self heal all the wear and tear that is pretty nice.
    - agumonkey 8y ago
      God complex as the ignorance / greed spectrum. It only works if you can sell your [bad re]creation to an audience.
  - Dylan16807 8y ago
    I have no idea what you're talking about. There are enormous areas of research built around adapting the already-existing self-assemblers to make new things.
  - realharo 8y ago
    There's a difference in knowing how to use a TV and knowing how to design and manufacture a TV. Or a difference between Jesse Pinkman and Walter White. I guess we don't need to stretch this joke too far.
- PopeDotNinja 8y ago
  I remember listening to a AI researcher talk about how his quest to develop an advanced intelligence led him to realize he could do that by having a child.
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    Remember his name ? I always thought that the limit of cyber/ai if eco-friendly survival, self-repair to an extent and reproduction was factored in would be homosapiens.exe
    - PopeDotNinja 8y ago
      Sorry, I don't. I'm pretty sure I heard it on an NPR broadcast in early August of 2001, but that's as much detail as I can recall.
      - agumonkey 8y ago
        Already a lot. I'll try my luck with that :)
        PopeDotNinja 8y ago
        Actually I think it was in April. I was headed to a U2 concert in San Jose when I heard it, and it looks like that was in April. Depeche Mode was in August :)
        agumonkey 8y ago
        tomorrow morning you'll have an epiphany about the name
Dylan16807 8y ago
Well, if you can find a tree that can be poured into a mold...
hammock 8y ago
You should click and read the article then, because the new material uses chloroplasts (a plant cell organelle).

agumonkey 8y ago

The more I know about biology the less I enjoy (applied and commercial) science because .. well biology does much of it right now.

Scriptor 8y ago
I bought some houseplants a bit back and it's been fascinating to see how quickly they grow. The vast majority of that new mass literally comes from thin air.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  Then think about the internals, the subtleties of cellular matrices. It's as beautiful as processor manufacturing, if not more, and right before your eyes all around. I laugh yellow~ when people dream of robotics.. when I see an annoying mosquito, I look at how thin all this is and yet it lives, flies, perceive the world quite a bit ... To an extent I think the future will just be the same old past except we'll now understand nature a bit more. I hope so.
  - tabs_masterrace 8y ago
    Dragonflies is where its at. These guys supposedly have one of the best eye vision of all species. Now compare that thing with flying camera drones. Anything we can build is so much inferior to what a Dragonfly can do.
    - aaaaaaaaaab 8y ago
      I’d doubt that. Compound eyes have inferior resolution compared to mammal/reptile/bird eyes. E.g. a compound eye with the angular resolution of your current eyes would be about the size of your head. Edit: nope, even bigger: >To see with a resolution comparable to our simple eyes, humans would require very large compound eyes, around 11 metres (36 ft) in radius. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye
- Pxtl 8y ago
  My favourite for this are South American tillandsia. They have no roots. They just sit on a tree branch and eat air.
  - Scriptor 8y ago
    Yeah, it's neat how roots mostly just bring in phosphates, nitrates, and water. Incidentally, carnivorous plants only get their phosphates and nitrates from whatever they trap. All of the actual carbon in all plants come from the air or from dissolved CO2 in the water.
s_kilk 8y ago
There's a certain fetish for technology that blinds us to the obvious power of biological systems. We end up chasing pipe dreams of self-assembling materials while ignoring the already-existing self-assembling materials right in front of us.
- taf2 8y ago
  It’s called a god complex? But the pragmatic reasoning is that what we build we can control more so than what nature has evolved. If for example, I can build a robot to pick up my trash can and walk it down to the street once a week and it’ll self heal all the wear and tear that is pretty nice.
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    God complex as the ignorance / greed spectrum. It only works if you can sell your [bad re]creation to an audience.
- Dylan16807 8y ago
  I have no idea what you're talking about. There are enormous areas of research built around adapting the already-existing self-assemblers to make new things.
- realharo 8y ago
  There's a difference in knowing how to use a TV and knowing how to design and manufacture a TV. Or a difference between Jesse Pinkman and Walter White. I guess we don't need to stretch this joke too far.
PopeDotNinja 8y ago
I remember listening to a AI researcher talk about how his quest to develop an advanced intelligence led him to realize he could do that by having a child.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  Remember his name ? I always thought that the limit of cyber/ai if eco-friendly survival, self-repair to an extent and reproduction was factored in would be homosapiens.exe
  - PopeDotNinja 8y ago
    Sorry, I don't. I'm pretty sure I heard it on an NPR broadcast in early August of 2001, but that's as much detail as I can recall.
    - agumonkey 8y ago
      Already a lot. I'll try my luck with that :)
      - PopeDotNinja 8y ago
        Actually I think it was in April. I was headed to a U2 concert in San Jose when I heard it, and it looks like that was in April. Depeche Mode was in August :)
        agumonkey 8y ago
        tomorrow morning you'll have an epiphany about the name

Dylan16807 8y ago

Well, if you can find a tree that can be poured into a mold...

hammock 8y ago

You should click and read the article then, because the new material uses chloroplasts (a plant cell organelle).