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> This makes it easy to identify crops ...until they evolve to emit the same spectrum of light as the crops being harvested! Cuz you know that's going to happ
by riskable 5y ago
> This makes it easy to identify crops
...until they evolve to emit the same spectrum of light as the crops being harvested! Cuz you know that's going to happen.
- _nalply 5y agoBacteria and viruses do that, but weeds first don't reproduce as fast and second humans can see them and find out something like treating crop seeds with fluorescent color.
- Retric 5y agoThat’s a slow process, further you can always rotate between crops with different spectra.
- delfinom 5y agoIt sounds like a slow process but plant life cycles are yearly compared to 20+ years for human generations to spawn, it will happen faster than you think. There are already round up resistant weeds and it's only been 50 years.
- Retric 5y agoEven 30 years after first implementation would be several generations of better hardware and software. Spectra is just one way to get v1 out the door, there are many ways you can improve things. Crops are planted in a specific pattern, at a specific time, grow at a specific rate, and have a unique shape. So you have a lot of information to work with.
- MayeulC 5y agoWell, that's right, and I didn't think of it. But besides what the sibling comments pointed out, that's an issue with any kind of weeding, including manual. The answer is to select according to a wide range of criteria, and not rely on a single one. That way, weeds cannot progressively acquire resistance, and need to check all the boxes at once, which makes it highly unlikely that they will pass on their "slightly better" genes. And of course, the larger the scale you employ a single weeding system at, the more risky it gets. It would be great for supplementing herbicide (while lowering doses) at first, for instance.
- ticklemyelmo 5y agoThis is the part where Monsanto starts engineering crops to fluoresce in a particular frequency of light, so you can target weeds inversely.
- Pokepokalypse 5y agoThat makes me think that this also makes crop-rotation obsolete. You can plant 20 different crops in the same field, in repeating sequence. The bot will take care of them as-needed, and next season, move everything down one slot.
- atat7024 5y agoEventually, the only organisms that remain will be mutualistic ones, if we do it right.
- OldManAndTheCpp 5y agoThis is a known process already https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry Examples of this are Rye and Oats.
- kps 5y agoWe just need the weedbots to test plants for flavour and nutritional value; cf. xkcd.com/810