5 ms·

Love these types of advances though I wonder if weeds and pests will adapt to outwit the robot or if our ability to adapt automation to such changes simply will

Love these types of advances though I wonder if weeds and pests will adapt to outwit the robot or if our ability to adapt automation to such changes simply will always/usually be too rapid for nature to keep up.

searine 4y ago
Pests will adapt to physical pest control like fire or crop rotation by timing their life cycles to avoid it. Robots aren't any different in that regard, if used without care pests could hypothetically adapt to their usage. The key to preventing this kind of adaptation is multiple modes of action. Robots do offer that ability because they can be used to both physically remove pests, and also chemically treat pests like in the video. If you have two to three robust modes of action, you can basically prevent resistance from happening entirely.
goalieca 4y ago
Firmware updates happen a lot faster than evolution. I personally like the laser one and mechanical weeders
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 4y ago
  Evolution might hijack the firmware update process now.
Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
Well if the weeds adapt into corn to outwit the robot that wouldn't be too bad.
- empyrrhicist 4y ago
  Fun fact, that's sort of how we got Rye.
  - Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
    Wow, thanks for that fact! >It is possible that rye traveled west from Asia Minor as a minor admixture in wheat (possibly as a result of Vavilovian mimicry), and was only later cultivated in its own right.[0] Also found this about rye while looking that up: >Recently, scholars have discovered that rye, more than other domesticated crops has followed a weedy species type of domestication process--from wild to weed to crop and then back to weed again.[1] [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye [1]https://www.thoughtco.com/rye-the-domestication-history-4092612 https://www.thoughtco.com/rye-the-domestication-history-4092...
    - empyrrhicist 4y ago
      I learned this from my brother when I was harvesting Job's Tears in the garden. A bunch of foxtail seeds kept landing in the bowl, and looked just about big enough to be a grain - I commented that it seemed likely that some of our grains must have evolved that way, getting selected because they got harder to distinguish from the main plant. He was like "yeah... that's basically the story of Rye" lol. It was something I'd never thought about, but actually trying to harvest a grain made it really clear.
bergenty 4y ago
I don’t think there is anything a plant can realistically do to adapt to a high enough wattage laser burning it away in the seedling stage.
- MikePlacid 4y ago
  - mimicry? - going invisible?
  - bergenty 4y ago
    Hmm very good points.
  - quixoticelixer- 4y ago
    Would be very very difficult for most weeds to mimic most crop plants. Plants can not become invisible.
geraneum 4y ago
It's natural selection and perhaps it's more likely that they will go extinct in such a scenario.
cwkoss 4y ago
There is a plant that mimics the shapes of other leaves - even if the leaves are made out of plastic. Pretty fascinating, the same photoreceptors suspected to enable this have been found in other plants, but the others don't use it to engage in mimicry. Weeds adapting to look like non-weeds is highly plausible, IMO. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8903786/#:~:text=trifoliolata%20leaves%20were%20shown%20to,gene%20transfer%20via%20airborne%20microbes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8903786/#:~:tex....
- quixoticelixer- 4y ago
  > Weeds adapting to look like non-weeds is highly plausible, IMO. It's not highly plausible. It would take a lot of generations and a lot of mutations for this to happen.
  - cwkoss 4y ago
    Boquila trifoliolata can do it within a single generation. Most weeds don't have this capability currently, but a strong selective pressure could make it happen pretty quick with the right lucky mutations.
    - quixoticelixer- 4y ago
      No strong selective pressure could not make it happen "pretty quick" it's very complicated behavior that would take a very long time to appear

searine 4y ago

Pests will adapt to physical pest control like fire or crop rotation by timing their life cycles to avoid it. Robots aren't any different in that regard, if used without care pests could hypothetically adapt to their usage. The key to preventing this kind of adaptation is multiple modes of action. Robots do offer that ability because they can be used to both physically remove pests, and also chemically treat pests like in the video. If you have two to three robust modes of action, you can basically prevent resistance from happening entirely.

goalieca 4y ago

Firmware updates happen a lot faster than evolution. I personally like the laser one and mechanical weeders

0xdeadbeefbabe 4y ago
Evolution might hijack the firmware update process now.

Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago

Well if the weeds adapt into corn to outwit the robot that wouldn't be too bad.

empyrrhicist 4y ago
Fun fact, that's sort of how we got Rye.
- Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
  Wow, thanks for that fact! >It is possible that rye traveled west from Asia Minor as a minor admixture in wheat (possibly as a result of Vavilovian mimicry), and was only later cultivated in its own right.[0] Also found this about rye while looking that up: >Recently, scholars have discovered that rye, more than other domesticated crops has followed a weedy species type of domestication process--from wild to weed to crop and then back to weed again.[1] [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye [1]https://www.thoughtco.com/rye-the-domestication-history-4092612 https://www.thoughtco.com/rye-the-domestication-history-4092...
  - empyrrhicist 4y ago
    I learned this from my brother when I was harvesting Job's Tears in the garden. A bunch of foxtail seeds kept landing in the bowl, and looked just about big enough to be a grain - I commented that it seemed likely that some of our grains must have evolved that way, getting selected because they got harder to distinguish from the main plant. He was like "yeah... that's basically the story of Rye" lol. It was something I'd never thought about, but actually trying to harvest a grain made it really clear.

bergenty 4y ago

I don’t think there is anything a plant can realistically do to adapt to a high enough wattage laser burning it away in the seedling stage.

MikePlacid 4y ago
- mimicry? - going invisible?
- bergenty 4y ago
  Hmm very good points.
- quixoticelixer- 4y ago
  Would be very very difficult for most weeds to mimic most crop plants. Plants can not become invisible.

geraneum 4y ago

It's natural selection and perhaps it's more likely that they will go extinct in such a scenario.

cwkoss 4y ago

There is a plant that mimics the shapes of other leaves - even if the leaves are made out of plastic. Pretty fascinating, the same photoreceptors suspected to enable this have been found in other plants, but the others don't use it to engage in mimicry. Weeds adapting to look like non-weeds is highly plausible, IMO. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8903786/#:~:text=trifoliolata%20leaves%20were%20shown%20to,gene%20transfer%20via%20airborne%20microbes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8903786/#:~:tex....

quixoticelixer- 4y ago
> Weeds adapting to look like non-weeds is highly plausible, IMO. It's not highly plausible. It would take a lot of generations and a lot of mutations for this to happen.
- cwkoss 4y ago
  Boquila trifoliolata can do it within a single generation. Most weeds don't have this capability currently, but a strong selective pressure could make it happen pretty quick with the right lucky mutations.
  - quixoticelixer- 4y ago
    No strong selective pressure could not make it happen "pretty quick" it's very complicated behavior that would take a very long time to appear