4 ms·

What useful function can they perform apart from reproducing? Can they move towards designated target? Can they carry microscopic load?

giuliomagnifico 5y ago
One step at time, I think they will study new functions for these, probably something related to the biomedical ambit.
DiogoSnows 5y ago
I guess if the worst case scenario does not happen ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo ) there will be some health applications with targeting certain types of cells/viruses/etc. Very interesting technology! I’d be curious to see the commercial applications down the line too, not so curious about the potential hyper targeted invisible weaponry possibilities though
- ricksunny 5y ago
  This from the PI (below); I'm afraid I'm starting to "lose the plot" on how researchers justify the value of controversial work to ethics committees & grant disbursers. 'Bongard points to the COVID epidemic and the hunt for a vaccine. “The speed at which we can produce solutions matters deeply. If we can develop technologies, learning from Xenobots, where we can quickly tell the AI,: ‘We need a biological tool that does X and Y and suppresses Z,’ —that could be very beneficial. Today, that takes an exceedingly long time.” The team aims to accelerate how quickly people can go from identifying a problem to generating solutions—"like deploying living machines to pull microplastics out of waterways or build new medicines,” Bongard says. “We need to create technological solutions that grow at the same rate as the challenges we face,” Bongard says. ' https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/team-builds-first-living-robots-that-can-reproduce/ https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/team-builds-first-living-robot...
  - krageon 5y ago
    > grow at the same rate as the challenges we face Given that the challenges grow exponentially as we mess more and more things up, I guess the objective really is grey goo.
    - vimacs2 5y ago
      These don't reproduce in that way though. They require existing skin cells that they then corrall into balls akin to themselves. Even if grey goo was a serious existential risk (it isn't because the classic doomsday scenario ignores energy density and heat dissipation as factors), this is not really talking about the same mechanism.
- vimacs2 5y ago
  As much as I long for the day I get to see the world and myself be assimilated into grey gooey unity, the whole gray goo scenario is terribly implausible for the same reason why it has never happened despite having self replicating machines on earth for at least 3 billion years: it turns out that performing any kind of abrasion at that scale requires a shit tonne of energy, which entails an even larger shit tonne of heat. Any grey goo candidates will rapidly vaporise themselves into cinders, even assuming they somehow manage to acquire the bordering-on-nuclear levels of energy density. In reality, a crack team of specialised machines will always beat a sea of generics anyway so any swarm of artificial self replicators will inevitably balloon into a fully blown parallel ecology long before it acquired the bulk for Armagooden.
tempodox 5y ago
I'd already be happy with frogobots washing my dishes for me. But I could never be sure they don't start eating my kitchen instead. Anyway, I'd call that species “rana experimentalis frivole” instead of the PR gimmick “xenobot”.

giuliomagnifico 5y ago

One step at time, I think they will study new functions for these, probably something related to the biomedical ambit.

DiogoSnows 5y ago

I guess if the worst case scenario does not happen ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo ) there will be some health applications with targeting certain types of cells/viruses/etc. Very interesting technology! I’d be curious to see the commercial applications down the line too, not so curious about the potential hyper targeted invisible weaponry possibilities though

ricksunny 5y ago
This from the PI (below); I'm afraid I'm starting to "lose the plot" on how researchers justify the value of controversial work to ethics committees & grant disbursers. 'Bongard points to the COVID epidemic and the hunt for a vaccine. “The speed at which we can produce solutions matters deeply. If we can develop technologies, learning from Xenobots, where we can quickly tell the AI,: ‘We need a biological tool that does X and Y and suppresses Z,’ —that could be very beneficial. Today, that takes an exceedingly long time.” The team aims to accelerate how quickly people can go from identifying a problem to generating solutions—"like deploying living machines to pull microplastics out of waterways or build new medicines,” Bongard says. “We need to create technological solutions that grow at the same rate as the challenges we face,” Bongard says. ' https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/team-builds-first-living-robots-that-can-reproduce/ https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/team-builds-first-living-robot...
- krageon 5y ago
  > grow at the same rate as the challenges we face Given that the challenges grow exponentially as we mess more and more things up, I guess the objective really is grey goo.
  - vimacs2 5y ago
    These don't reproduce in that way though. They require existing skin cells that they then corrall into balls akin to themselves. Even if grey goo was a serious existential risk (it isn't because the classic doomsday scenario ignores energy density and heat dissipation as factors), this is not really talking about the same mechanism.
vimacs2 5y ago
As much as I long for the day I get to see the world and myself be assimilated into grey gooey unity, the whole gray goo scenario is terribly implausible for the same reason why it has never happened despite having self replicating machines on earth for at least 3 billion years: it turns out that performing any kind of abrasion at that scale requires a shit tonne of energy, which entails an even larger shit tonne of heat. Any grey goo candidates will rapidly vaporise themselves into cinders, even assuming they somehow manage to acquire the bordering-on-nuclear levels of energy density. In reality, a crack team of specialised machines will always beat a sea of generics anyway so any swarm of artificial self replicators will inevitably balloon into a fully blown parallel ecology long before it acquired the bulk for Armagooden.

tempodox 5y ago

I'd already be happy with frogobots washing my dishes for me. But I could never be sure they don't start eating my kitchen instead. Anyway, I'd call that species “rana experimentalis frivole” instead of the PR gimmick “xenobot”.