In this case synthetic also means organic…would Mary Shelley be proud?
Yes that’s right artificial intelligence (AI) and biology (BioTech) have avoided natural selection and accelerated evolution, maybe even broken moral and religious codes to create the world’s first ‘living robots’ or synthetic life forms.
Just think for a moment — not human, not animal they are small organisms that can organise, grow and divide and also produce progeny. Each synthetic cell can do different things and can be organised to create artificial life on their terms.
From a human stand point the theory remains that it is the ‘Higgs’ sub atomic particle that prevents humans from being a pile of goo, water, fat and carbon on the ground. The ‘H’ is thought to give the body structure, as we start to understand how the world around us and the universe is organised.
It was one of Alan Turin’s greatest questions in my view — he asked the question — how do cells know what to do? All cells are formed equal and uniform yet they merge and conjoin to make different body parts — bone, skin, hair etc also refereed to as Microgenesis.
Although Xenobots (an unfortunate name) are tiny less than 1mm they comprise of upto 1000 cells creating synthetic organisms that has significant implications for improving the health and lives of people, but also weaponised to create havoc.
An unnatural evolution.
Rather than finding their way Xenobots are synthetic and their evolution is pre-programmed. Programmed by human guided AI the Xenobots can form useful; structures that can act like surgical tools and help support and perform various clinical procedures.
Although synthetic by design — they are organic, alive, or the body would attack them with an auto-immune response. Because it is cell based and not a molecule.
“I was astounded by it,” said Michael Levin, a professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University who was co-lead author of the new research.
“Frogs have a way of reproducing that they normally use but when you … liberate (the cells) from the rest of the embryo and you give them a chance to figure out how to be in a new environment, not only do they figure out a new way to move, but they also figure out apparently a new way to reproduce.”
We have a living programmable life form…that can reorganise, repair themselves and perform functions. The major option until now were Nano Bots or Nano Machines that were not organic released into the body — with multiple papers confirming the body would not only reject these third parties if they entered the brain, heart and other vital organs you would die.
Xenobots — a breakthrough or the beginning of the slippery slope…?
- Some Use Cases could be worth exploring that could actually work:
- Clearly blockages in arteries, removing toxins from the body, repairing damaged tissue and organs.
- Deploying and disbursing drugs and treatments throughout the human body.
- Could these Xenobots cleans up our cities, forests, oceans? Removing plastics and other pollutants or would they morph into other life forms as they are after all organic and thus biodegradable that will leave behind something?
- Or could they be injected into non organic robots to give a form of life itself?
So once again we have breached the ‘Hippocratic Oath’ as these scientists have gone ahead regardless of the ethical and moral questions.
The question Should We? But then again science is about freedom of discovery but it is worth remembering you cannot un-invent the nuclear bomb or gene editing tech. The scientist that played with editing baby embryos using CRISPR after all went to prison — but the edited humans remain?
Given these Xenobots are AI controlled they can of course be weaponised with scary consequences if they are inside your body. How would anyone know? And remember under law software code is exempt from prosecution.
They may mutate into something else when they meet a toxin or chemical that could effect their organic structure, but not kill them. Could they go rogue?
Would the Xenobot over time emerge as a living entity — after all it is organic?
The challenge for us all right now is scene is advancing exponentially with the advancement of computing processing and understanding how to train AI. The opportunities are almost endless.
It took law makers and governments a decade or more to understand the implications of the Internet, they have sat back and done nothing about Social Media manipulation and the stealing and use of peoples personal data — used for behavioural manipulation of everything. Because they still dont understand it.
Why?
Because law makers and especially governments are inadequate, generally a bunch of old people that struggle to use a mobile phone. I can say that because I am also considered old, able to get a free ‘bus pass’ in the UK.
Humanity is very bad at learning from history and past events. Maybe its a generational thing or simply the arrogance of human thinking, that this time they know what to do…
With so many frontier technologies emerging and the world of synthetic biology advancing much faster than others we have reached a tipping point where the challenges of regulating and controlling advanced technologies is not possible by humans alone. And regardless governments will ignore these as they will weaponise each technology in the name of national security any way.
We will soon need AI to help us manage, understand and control other tech and other AI. But here is the thing. AI using Quantum Computers and Neural Nets can scan billions of scenarios and assess billions of pieces of data and information and humans cannot. As AI breaks free of narrow scope it will advance away from human understanding and we will have no way of knowing what it is doing, friend of foe, ally or enemy…
You decide. Xenobot smart move forward or scary step back…
Author: Nick Ayton is a futurist, speaker and writer, a leading influencer and commentator of Deep Technologies.