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Robot Piloted by a Slime Mold
TeknoHog writes "Robotics researchers from the UK and Japan have linked up a slime mold to remotely control a six-legged robot. The mold, which is naturally light-sensitive, is able to hide the robot in dark corners, and the scientists expect to further this technology for use in smaller, autonomous units. There is also a preprint of the research paper available from the University of Southampton."
Think about it... a slime mold, while naturally light-avoidant, won't naturally know how to manipulate robotic appendages. Rather than sneering dismissively, you might realize this is a significant step forward to creating hardware and software that can directly interface with your nervous system. Such technology has many awesome as well as frightening implications.
Procrastination Man strikes again!
Modded INSIGHTFUL?!?
*rolls eyes so hard they fall out of their sockets*
1 is the square root of all evil.
>> Well, I for one welcome our...
It wouldn't be such a big change, since since we already have slimy overlords.
At least real slime molds aren't susceptible to bribery and corruption, and have far higher competence in the area that they are directing.
I think the point is actually that a single-celled organism can do this just as well, or probably better, than any complicated adaptive control system that we can come up with.
Our task is to learn from nature, and that is what is being done here. People might want this to be more exciting, but great research is basic. They took two systems that were well-studied and well-understood (light-sensitive robots and single-celled organisms), smooshed them together, and found out just how well (or not well) we understood them to begin with.
m0nstr42.blogspot.com
Don't laugh. Some of the TV shopping channels sell "genuine faux pearls", or "genuine Diamonique".
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.