Imagine a machine that harvests power not from batteries or solar cells but from the soil, with help from a continuously developing root system. This machine would be able to penetrate the ground, explore, and adapt to what it finds—like a plant. The roots of this machine would be able to communicate with each other locally and be able to make decisions collectively, e.g. without a central intelligence; the roots are the machine or at least aren't subservient to a central intelligence, in much the same way that the surface portion of a plant doesn't govern the roots of the plant. This machine, as post-AI as it sounds, is the theoretical goal of the European Commission-funded Plantoid project.Here are the project's two goals, in its own words.1) to abstract and synthesize with robotic artefacts the principles that enable plant roots to effectively and efficiently explore and adapt to underground environments;2) to formulate scientifically testable hypotheses and models of some unknown aspects of plant roots, such as the role of local communication among root apices during adaptive growth and the combination of rich sensory information to produce collective decisions.I'm having some difficulty articulating why exactly a system designed ostensibly for soil monitoring is so creepy, but this suggestion courtesy of the Discovery News blog gets at the heart of it: "There’s also the possibility for medical uses, such as an endoscope that could grow into a patient while still remaining flexible." Which is pretty much the most horrific thought I can imagine. Now hold still while this robot grows roots into your body.Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.
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