Robots controlled by electrical impulses from fungal mycelium threads:
Robot Blends Living Organisms and MachinesThe "rootlike threads" are grown into a robot's hardware. I was surprised to learn fungi generate electrical impulses. Because the mycelia are light-sensitive, scientists can control the direction and speed of the robots' movements with ultraviolet light.
It's hoped that, when perfected, such biohybrid machines could have agricultural uses, among other applications. The article includes a photo of a robot covered with a "self-healing skin. . . that can react to light and touch." The picture looks a bit like the conventional image of a golem.
I'm reminded of T. Kingfisher's riveting novel WHAT MOVES THE DEAD, a retelling of Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" in science-fiction terms. It attributes the eerie phenomena -- e.g., the climactic rising of a dead character from her tomb -- to an intelligent fungal colony that lives in the tarn and infiltrates the bodies of animals (and at least one person). The organism seems to be trying to communicate and apparently doesn't mean any real harm. How could it understand why humans get upset when corpses walk around?
Has anyone ever produced a horror movie about a swarm of intelligent fungi? If mushroom-robot symbiosis ever results in a successful commercial product, surely such a film couldn't be far behind.
One expert in the ethical implications of technological innovations expresses concern "that if biohybrid robots become more sophisticated and are deployed in the ocean or another ecosystem it could disrupt the habitat, challenging the traditional distinction between life and machine." However, there's no mention of a potential for mycelium-powered machines to become conscious and demand civil rights or fair salaries, fringe benefits, and working conditions.
Margaret L. Carter
Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.
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Have you watched Star Trek Discovery? They have a "spore drive" they travel in that uses the Mycelium Network. Actually quite fascinating. https://amhuru.com/exploring-the-mycelium-network-in-star-trek/#:~:text=While%20its%20biological%20counterpart%20thrives%20beneath%20our%20feet%2C,space%2C%20that%20allows%20instantaneous%20travel%20across%20vast%20distances.
ReplyDeleteWow, how cool! I watched the first few episodes of ST: DISCOVERY (maybe the whole first season), and it didn't grab me enough to induce me to continue. Partly, Spock put me off by not being enough like canon Spock (IMO). Also, was that the series whose first season ended with the ship's being thrown forward into the distant future? Or am I thinking of a different one? Whichever series that was, that event was a "jump the shark" moment for me.
DeleteOr maybe DISCOVERY isn't the prequel series with Captain Pike, and I've completely mixed up two different things?
DeleteThat's a different Star Trek with Pike (another fantastic one, Strange New Worlds). Yes, they were thrown forward into the distant future on Discover. Discovery took a long time to really grow on me. By the 2nd season, though, I was hooked. It also took me a long time to accept Spock as anything but who he was portrayed as in the original series.
ReplyDeleteDiscovery, not Discover.
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