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Mushroom learns to crawl after being given robot body
- inglor_cz 2y agoHowever odd it may seem, fungi are evolutionary closer to animals than to plants.
- NotAnOtter 2y agoThis has no relevance to the article. As others have said, the fungi isn't actually thinking or really controlling the bot. It makes arbitrary electrical stimulus anyways, and they're just "listening" to that and using it to control a robot
- OgsyedIE 2y agoA book released earlier this year (1) asking about whether humanity is guaranteed to avoid losing the war against fungal pathogens. It turns out that all kinds of fungus generally get more aggressive in hotter climates. So, this research that their adaptability exceeds slime molds isn't reassuring. (1): https://muse.jhu.edu/book/124391/ https://muse.jhu.edu/book/124391/
- 3np 2y agoIf you can't beat them, join them. Fungus-human-symbiot might be a win-win!
- nilsherzig 2y agolast of us
- skywhopper 2y agoI mean, “learns”? They took an existing biochemical/electrical activity pattern and wired it up to trigger servo motors. The mushroom did not learn anything.
- wileydragonfly 2y agoSo far.
- jmkni 2y agoAmateurs!
- istultus 2y agoAs with any "New York Times Journal of Medicine"-type article, the author of the article didn't understand/chose to inflate the actual research - what they did was create a system that captures the fungus's electrical activity and used those pulses to arbitrarily assign movement rules to the robot. There's no suggesting of the fungus controlling the robot - merely a showcase that we have a system to capture the electrical activity of a mushroom. For all intents and purposes we have a robot with a motor instead of any other indicator - could've been a monitor showing a graph.
- latexr 2y agohttps://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2009-08-30 https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2009-08-30 https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/science-journalism https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/science-journalism
- AtlasBarfed 2y agoThe daily show or John Oliver show should do a recurring segment mocking msm science coverage. This is a serious problem, and only getting more serious with ai generated misinformation. Science is a pure institution of truth, or the best approximation of it that is practically possible. Bad science reporting has for decades undermined this tapping into the inherent antiintellectual current in America culture, relegating it to no better than celebrity news and news of the weird distraction segments. It really reflects very poorly on the fourth estate, it's not a new problem, it's existed for at least a century. I doubt things would ever get better considering the financial war on newspapers and news reporting in general
- anonCoffee 2y agoWhy would a pillar of MSM do that?
- latexr 2y agoLast Week Tonight (John Oliver’s show) mocks some part of mainstream media every episode. It’s the “and now this” segment. Plus they have no qualms about criticising what they see as wrong such as disguised sponsored content or “local” news all repeating the same talking points from their owner. Mocking science coverage would be peanuts.
- blendergeek 2y agoHere is the original source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39196952/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39196952/
- dylanlacom 2y agoI propose we call these engineers Fungineers
- shermantanktop 2y agoBetter title would “random input enables robot to wiggle; mushroom used as random generator.”
- manvillej 2y agonow you are making me wonder if mushrooms could be good random number generators
- capitainenemo 2y agoWell, reading the article from the research that was linked in the HN comments: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adk8019?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adk8019?url_... "Taking advantage of fungal mycelia’s natural light sensitivity, Mishra et al. developed an electrical interface to both house the mycelia and measure their electrophysiological action potentials. A control model was then developed to use the rhythmic voltage spikes from the living mycelia to control the locomotion of both a soft starfish-inspired robot and a wheeled robot. Robot trajectories could be altered by stimulating the mycelia with ultraviolet light. " So. The mushroom was used as an ultraviolet light sensor, not just an RNG. But you could imagine it reacting to anything that might interest a mushroom. Food? Some sensors could be more useful than others.
- caesia 2y agoThis research appears to have low fungibility
- ClumsyPilot 2y agoReplication will be spore-addic!
- pcdoodle 2y ago[flagged]
- andrewstuart 2y agoI'll show you exactly where this folly leads. Putting fungus in charge of a robot body leads directly to the creation of the Daleks and then the only way to fix that is to get Doctor Who to destroy the lab growing the mushrooms, as shown here: https://youtu.be/RUNLK2oN5c4?t=2212 https://youtu.be/RUNLK2oN5c4?t=2212 Humanity is making a terrible mistake with the "mushroom controls robot" thing, it will not end well - likely with us all cringing in the smoking ruins of civilisation whilst mushroom Daleks search for the survivors amongst the rubble. Almost certainly.
- bitwize 2y agoI thought we had invented skroderiders for a second.
- Suizou 2y agoI'm not surprised. Because I like to try out many things in order to gain firsthand perspectives, I tried veganism for a year back in 2003. It was the first time I grilled a portobello mushroom. My system was so completely cleared out of any animal products after many months (including honey) that I was absolutely shocked when I bit into its meaty flesh and was overwhelmed with a sentient connection that went beyond a simple similarity in texture, as it was very obvious to be animal in nature. As I was working at the San Diego Natural History museum at the time, I consulted with the librarian and found that mushrooms do indeed carry a combination of both plant and animal DNA.
- mikeyinternews 2y agoLearns to crawl isn't accurate but it raises interesting questions about sentience. A better title would be “humans learn to build robot that uses mycellium's bio-chemical reactions to stimuli to pilot a robot”…Kinda long though and not really eye catching ;)
- mensetmanusman 2y agoStep 2, take decapitated cadavers and replace head with mushroom. If it turns into half life, we win!
- __temp__2387 2y agoCoincidently I happened to listen to a bbc radio programme on mushrooms which talked about cordyceps and how it infects ants. The new (to me) research was that the fungus doesn't really infect the brain, more the rest of the body and its muscles. Cordyceps more or less puppeteers the ants body to get it to do what it wants in very precise ways, like making the ant climb to a suitable height and then bite into a particular part of the plant's leaf. All of this from a fungus. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022sck https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022sck]