Researchers find xenobots can give rise to offspring

Author: hi5eyes

Score: 59

Comments: 21

Date: 2021-11-29 22:28:19

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robotresearcher wrote at 2021-11-30 00:53:54:

“These things move around in the dish and make copies of themselves,” said Prof Josh Bongard, of the University of Vermont, a co-author of the research.

But there is a hitch. “It turns out that these xenobots will replicate once, one generation, they will make children. But the children are too small and weak to make grandchildren,” said Bongard.

So, not copies of themselves, after all. Since the offspring lack at least the ability to make offspring.

I bet Bongard would love to demonstrate evolution of xenobots. He needs sustainable replication with heritable traits to get it going. Then he can select for the behavior he wants.

Thus we can discover interesting/valuable cell assemblies to either make by (eventually robot) hand, or if the xenomorph ecosystem can support replication factors above 1, farm.

drdeca wrote at 2021-11-30 09:42:51:

> Since the offspring lack at least the ability to make offspring.

That’s describing the earlier design. The later computer made design was able to produce not only grandchildren, but, iirc, even up to great great grandchildren.

robotresearcher wrote at 2021-11-30 17:40:14:

Thanks, I missed that. The text is below. It's not clear from the article if the repro is sustainable indefinitely.

> Using artificial intelligence, the researchers found that if the xenobots were formed into certain shapes, such as that of the video game character Pac-Man, replication continued for further generations.

drdeca wrote at 2021-11-30 18:25:53:

Yes, the other article I read (which Wikipedia cites) mentioned great great grandchildren, but it wasn’t clear to me whether it seemed like it could continue indefinitely.

laplacesdemon48 wrote at 2021-11-30 02:21:08:

In case anyone wants to see what this looks like, here's a video I found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1eg-jgLx5o

cwkoss wrote at 2021-11-30 00:01:49:

xenobots seem like a bad name for something that is neither alien or robot.

robbedpeter wrote at 2021-11-30 00:13:24:

It's xeno because its biology is synthetic, alien to "natural" biology, and -bot because the structure is synthetic, like any other robot. It's interesting research, but seems a little haphazard to me.

"What if we make a Pacman shape out of frog cells" doesn't seem like it's leading anywhere profound.

I wonder if they could impose arbitrary logic, and implement something like Conway's game of life? Seems like you'd need a predictable algorithmic framework in order to achieve anything useful with it.

sxyuan wrote at 2021-11-30 00:34:21:

Xeno comes from Xenopus laevis, a species of frog. It's a commonly used model organism and I believe often the source of the cells used in xenobots.

cwkoss wrote at 2021-11-30 01:12:45:

Ah, that significantly reduces my distaste.

Teever wrote at 2021-11-30 01:06:03:

Freeform tissue engineering doesn't seem like it's leading anywhere profound?

Imagine using autologous xenobots (homobots?) as a drug delivery mechanism for humans.

> I wonder if they could impose arbitrary logic, and implement something like Conway's game of life? Seems like you'd need a predictable algorithmic framework in order to achieve anything useful with it.

Exactly. When I look at these xenobots I see a prototype for programmable matter. Imagine using these kinds of things to run programs where the output of the programs isn't shifting bits in a CPU but shifting molecules in a substrate.

You could use these for autonomous manufacturing from the microscale and up.

ronyclau wrote at 2021-11-30 06:41:04:

Let's hope we can someday program it to find the answer to life, the universe and everything, and subsequently the ultimate question, just so we can render all philosophers jobless.

darepublic wrote at 2021-11-30 20:24:16:

Relieved that reproduction can only happen once. The mystery of life hangs on

lvass wrote at 2021-11-30 01:18:39:

Gotta love how they categorize this as "machine" right after listing every single imaginable characteristic of living beings.

naasking wrote at 2021-11-30 03:54:48:

Grey goo, here we come!

dang wrote at 2021-11-29 23:04:49:

There's a press release about this at

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29385548

but it seems a bit sensational.

cat_plus_plus wrote at 2021-11-30 02:21:39:

That's such a fantastic idea to pursue after this pandemic!

coolspot wrote at 2021-11-30 05:24:36:

To make it better they also should make it consume any material it could find.

bryanrasmussen wrote at 2021-11-30 07:55:28:

a submission of mine yesterday of the original paper

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29385491

anonymfus wrote at 2021-11-30 05:31:33:

Can similar kinetic processes be involved in how cancer cells form metastases?

aspyct wrote at 2021-11-30 08:09:13:

I feel like we should start talking about ethics here.

neurtrinosfake wrote at 2021-11-30 06:33:14:

why is stuff from the guardian not on a HN blacklist or something

lvs wrote at 2021-11-30 04:48:26:

Hype, marketing, and devoid of recognizable scientific content.