Re: 'Plasmobot': Scientists To Design First Robot Using Mould...

[Guest guest]

Pete,

Here is someone who felt just like I did when I read it. He writes,

" *Okay, come on, how could I not blog this. " lol

_http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/08/its-a-robot-made-of-slime-mo

ld/_

(http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/08/its-a-robot-made-of-slime-mold/)

It’s a robot made of slime mold.

* By Bruce Sterling (mailto:bruces@...)

* August 31, 2009 |

* 3:38 am |

*

_http://www.physorg.com/news170865567.html_

(http://www.physorg.com/news170865567.html)

(…)

“This new plasmodium robot, called plasmobot, (((it had to have a cute

neological name))) will sense objects, span them in the shortest and best way

possible, and transport tiny objects along pre-programmed directions. The

robots will have parallel inputs and outputs, a network of sensors and the

number crunching power of super computers. (((Sort of.))) The plasmobot will

be controlled by spatial gradients of light, electro-magnetic fields and

the characteristics of the substrate on which it is placed. It will be a

fully controllable and programmable amorphous intelligent robot with an

embedded massively parallel computer.â€

This research will lay the groundwork for further investigations into the

ways in which this mould can be harnessed for its powerful computational

abilities.

Professor Adamatzky says that there are long term potential benefits from

harnessing this power. “We are at the very early stages of our understanding

of how the potential of the plasmodium can be applied, but in years to

come we may be able to use the ability of the mould for example to deliver a

small quantity of a chemical substance to a target, (((if you don’t mind it

getting all moldy)))) using light to help to propel it, (((why))) or the

movement could be used to help assemble micro-components of machines.

(((Blue-collar slime.))) In the very distant future we may be able to harness

the

power of plasmodia within the human body, (((AIEEEEE!)))) for example to

enable drugs to be delivered to certain parts of the human body.

(((OoooOOOOoooooh.)))

“It might also be possible for thousands of tiny computers made of

plasmodia to live on our skin (((AIEEEEE to the power of 2))) and carry out

routine

tasks freeing up our brain for other things. (((Why not REPLACE the brain

with a computational slime mold? Zigzagging deep into Rudy Rucker territory

here))) Many scientists see this as a potential development of amorphous

computing, but it is purely theoretical at the moment.â€

(((How about a moist, icky urban-gardening favela-chic compost heap with a

computational slime mold, powered by cast-off mobile phone components,

vigorously churning it up? Or even just a sealed terrarium where the robot

slime mold does pet tricks? No no — what I need is a robot slime mold to help

me manage my spam and to clean out unnecessary news from clogged RSS feeds.

Or YouTube! Yeah, a robot slime mold that eats bad YouTube videos, leaving

only videos that involve extreme-sports bio-robotics.)))

In a message dated 8/31/2009 3:59:52 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,

pete-@... writes:

At 01:02 PM 8/31/2009, you wrote:

>

>

>This sounds like the good set up for a B rated horror movie. Man Made

>Mold Robots.

>

> " Plasmobotenstein vs. Man "

>

>'Plasmobot''Plasmobot'<WBR>: Scientists To Design First Robot

>ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2009) - Scientists at the University of the West of

>England are to design the first ever biological robot using mould.

Since when was April 1 spelled Aug. 27?

Be scared, very scared. Why? A robot that spreads mold?

What are they thinking? Glad I do not live in England. ;-)

Good find. I like science, a lot. Thanks.