3 ms·
I know the line is blurry, but I disagree that clumps of iron oxide nanoparticles rise to the level of "robot"
by ghkbrew 7y ago
I know the line is blurry, but I disagree that clumps of iron oxide nanoparticles rise to the level of "robot"
- taneq 7y agoThis irritates me too, and I see it all the time. No, a sliver of metal or a piece of plastic being excited by an indiscriminate outside force is not a robot. If there's offboard sensing and control systems which can maneuver the particles individually then you could make a case for it. If you're just jiggling them with a magnetic field then no.
- yorwba 7y agoThe reason you're seeing it all the time is probably because roboticists are very excited about using external magnetic fields to create smaller designs that don't require carrying a power source, without worrying whether those are still "robots". For example, the best paper award at the Robotics: Science and Systems conference this year was won by a magnetic jellyfish: http://www.roboticsproceedings.org/rss15/p13.pdf http://www.roboticsproceedings.org/rss15/p13.pdf Maybe the magnet should be counted as part of the robot, with the moving parts being analogous to a gripper.
- amelius 7y agoReminds me of the philosophical question: can rocks think?
- corysama 7y agohttps://twitter.com/daisyowl/status/841802094361235456 https://twitter.com/daisyowl/status/841802094361235456