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Robotic Mold
Canis Lupus writes to mention that researchers from the University of West England are designing the world's first biological robot, constructed from mold. The robot, "Plasmobot," will be created using vegetative slime mold called plasmodium (Physarum polycephalum) that is commonly found in forests, gardens, and most damp places in the UK. "This new plasmodium robot, called plasmobot, 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. 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."
The article explains what's meant by saying that the "robot" will compute: "Most people's idea of a computer is a piece of hardware with software designed to carry out specific tasks. This mould, or plasmodium, is a naturally occurring substance with its own embedded intelligence. It propagates and searches for sources of nutrients and when it finds such sources it branches out in a series of veins of protoplasm. The plasmodium is capable of solving complex computational tasks, such as the shortest path between points and other logical calculations. Through previous experiments we have already demonstrated the ability of this mould to transport objects. By feeding it oat flakes, it grows tubes which oscillate and make it move in a certain direction carrying objects with it. We can also use light or chemical stimuli to make it grow in a certain direction."
That's like saying that the bamboo plant on my desk is a robot. It, too, transports substances in a direction determined by light input, and computes the optimal direction for approaching a light source. I could even claim that I'm adding "logic gates" to it by covering or pruning certain leaves.
Says the article, the mold robot has "the number crunching power of super computers" because it carries out computing tasks. That claim is also pretty silly. The A* algorithm can find the shortest distance between paths, and it doesn't require anything that could be called a supercomputer today.
So, this thing is a "robot" in the sense that pointing at random objects and calling yourself a master of "found art" is art.
Revive the Constitution.
The previous attemp contained in papers stored in the head, using hebrew text as programming language.
Rest assured, your Dungeon Master will come up with something interesting.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
Adamatzky I'm already familiar with, citing his Chemical Computer in a senior paper to finish my CS degree. This is no more crazy than using electrostatic foam to compute.
I think it can be summed up best as "what could possibly grow wrong?"
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
From an unlikely source: PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
Search terms "plasmodium Physarum polycephalum"
I went looking for negative stuff, knowing plasmodiums were behind malaria. Couldn't find any for this stuff, but I did find some juicy bits from biomedical science regarding its computational ability, or rather its internal processes that can be used as such. Not many will be able to get the referenced material, but just the abstracts are tasty.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
I noticed a tiny mistake in TFS. Since it's British, they should have spelled it "mould", becauuse American mold is so different. British mold doesn't even have color -- it has colours.
Free Martian Whores!
You're sitting in a bar. The vid screen is barely audible over the sounds of the loud patrons hammering back their brews and celebrating the end of the day and beginning of the night. With some effort, you tune your cybernetic hearing enhancement to hear the newscaster.
"Hackers used banned mould robots to conquer cheese factories in Wisconsin and France. News at Eleven.
Looking down, the plate of nachos you ordered suddenly doesn't look so appealing. It looks less appealing as it leaps up from the plate, tortilla chips poking your eye and jalapenos forcing their way down your throat.
Roll for initiative, please.
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
This plasmodium doesn't hold a candle to my plasmondilium
Translation for our readers in New Zealand, he means "monster size".
No, this sounds like it's a normal mold.
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You hit the brown mold. You are suddenly very cold!
Yeah. Sounds about as interesting as using sunflower heads to keep solar cells pointed at the sun. Sure, you can probably do it, but does it accomplish anything practically?
I.e., tell me when they've done something interesting. In the meantime, they're just watching mold do what mold normally does.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
I don't know about you, but we've tried our own implementation of this phenomenon in our office fridge, and haven't gotten any good computational output. Sure, the General Tso's Chicken came up with a fairly solid quicksort implementation, but that Greenish Liquid That May or May Not Have Been a Salad At One Time still hasn't figured out basic pointer arithmetic, much less decent memory management.