XENOBOTS
INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND
Character Origin Story
The Xenobots were invented in 2020. The Inventors of the Xenobot were
Sam Kriegman, Douglas Blackiston, Michael Levin, and Josh Bongard.
In size, they are less than a millimeter, around 0.039 inches.
It is the next step in nanobots using organic matter as the body and making
a robotic bot which can do simple things like move, crawl and some
complex things as dropping, swimming etc
Researchers use stem cells harvested from the embryos of the African
Clawed frog and a sophisticated computer algorithm, they generated a
blueprint design that allowed the team to then build a new form of life that
has never existed before.
Stem cells were first differentiated into skin and heart cells. The skin cells
were chosen for their capability to bond together to form the passive
architecture of the Xenobot, while heart cells were selected for their ability
to contract and relax, with the goal of manufacturing a type of tiny engine
that would propel the Xenobots.
analogs at bottom.
Here we can see that the above row is basically a pixelated construction of
xenobots made by simulation. And below we can see the movement of the
xenobot and phases in its movement.
The intention in the creation of xenobots was to reduce the size of the bots
possible by using a biological body as its host and using the stem cells to
make its movement possible.
In a simple term it is basically a group of bacteria programmed to do a
certain task. Here the bacteria doesn’t have its own mind and only relies on
the programming done to exist, move and act.
Xenobot, heal thyself…
The biological materials we are using have many features we would like to
someday implement in the bots — cells can act like sensors, motors for
movement, communication and computation networks, and recording
devices to store information.
One thing the Xenobots and future versions of biological bots can do that
their metal and plastic counterparts have difficulty doing is constructing
their own body plan as the cells grow and mature, and then repairing and
restoring themselves if they become damaged. Healing is a natural feature
of living organisms, and it is preserved in Xenobot biology.
“We have finally achieved something close to a comic character wolverine”
The new Xenobots were remarkably adept at healing and would close the
majority of a severe full-length laceration half their thickness within 5
minutes of the injury. All injured bots were able to ultimately heal the
wound, restore their shape and continue their work as before.
This is due to the fact that they are a bunch of cells that are bundled
together and have an easy time healing compared to a human being where
the process of healing is a complex procedure involving many different
cells.
Like the original Xenobots, the upgraded bots can survive up to ten days on
their embryonic energy stores and run their tasks without additional energy sources, but they can also carry on at full speed for many months if kept in
a “soup” of nutrients.
The new generation Xenobots also move faster, navigate different
environments, and have longer lifespans than the first edition, and they still
have the ability to work together in groups and heal themselves.
A New Form of Life?
The researchers’ original work already opened questions of what, exactly,
Xenobots are. Are they lifeforms? Robots, but made of biological material,
in lieu of nuts and bolts?
As you can imagine, these improved iterations — which organize on their
own — are provoking more of the same.
Tel Aviv University evolutionary biologist Eva Jablonka, who is unaffiliated
with the work, told Quanta Magazine that she considers them a new form of
life “defined by what it does rather than to what it belongs developmentally
and evolutionarily.”
Blackiston explained that Xenobots are brought to life similar to traditional
robots, but instead of artificial components to create forms and create
predictable behavior, they use organic cells and tissues.
What are Xeno-bots used for??
Xenobots are capable of simple movements such as move, slide, have
been designed to walk, swim, push pellets, carry payloads, and work
together in a swarm to aggregate debris scattered along the surface of their
dish into neat piles. They can survive for weeks without food and heal
themselves after lacerations.
Are xenobots living or robotic??
It is hard to say one or the other due to them being made or part organic
cells and part electronics which makes it a cyborg in a way. For it to be
considered living there are certain parameters such as the ability to feel
pain or other things which the xenobots are incapable of which makes it a
non-living entity. Though there are some parts that make it a living being it
doesn’t meet all the conditions which makes it a non-living. This is not a
new case as plants were considered a non-living things for a long time,
after Jagadish Chandra Bose discovered and proved that plants are living
creatures and made a revolution in botany.
Possible applications of xenobots
1.Detecting tumors and cleaning clogged arteries:
The medical field is touted to be the biggest beneficiary of advancements in
xenobot technology. In the future, scientists may develop xenobots to
detect and fight cancer.
The challenge that scientists presently face in removing tumorous cells is
that when they insert a foreign object to work on the tumor, the body
immediately recognizes it as a foreign body and begins an immune
response.
This immune response can cause further complications in the overall
cancer treatment. With xenobots, it’s possible to make them from the cells
of the actual patient. This way, when xenobots are inserted into the body to
detect/remove tumorous cells, the body would not treat them as an alien
entity, meaning that unwanted immune responses can be avoided.
Similarly, xenobots could be deployed in the arteries of heart patients to
undo dangerous clogging. Even with these few purposes, xenobots would
become a revolutionary element in the medical field.
2. Cleaning Oceans
Due to increased industrial activity over the past few decades, the oceans
and other water bodies of the planet are being badly polluted, as waste
materials from industries and factories are being recklessly dumped into
the oceans and nearby water bodies. Thus, water bodies are littered with
microplastics, which cannot be easily recycled or processed.
Maybe in the future, scientists can develop xenobots that could detect and
break down these microplastics. If not, they could at least collect them and
clump them together. Perhaps these xenobots could even be used to
detect radioactive contaminants in oceans or other suspected places.
3. Warfare
A xenobot can be seen as the new biological weapon for warfare. Due to its
capability to carry payload and execute simple commands it is a danger to
society if used incorrectly. A possible application of xenobots in warfare can
be to carry viruses or such microbes that can spread quickly and cause
chaos and bring harm and destruction to the humans. It is in a way similar
to artificial intelligence where the way of use decides if it’s boon or bane.
For example if a ASI or artificial super intelligence has risen and has taken
control of all technology and decides that humans are irrelevant it can wipe
out all of the humanity in mere seconds, in the same way if the same ASI
decides to help humanity it can cure all know diseases in mere possible
hours and can bring peace and order to the world. In the same way
xenobots can be the panacea to the world or poison.
Possible Future Development
When multiple xenobots are combined together there is a chance that more
complex functionalities could emerge from them. Like thinking on their own
and moving on their own.
They can develop cognitive abilities like humans. Humans as individual
cells can’t think for themselves but when combined and a human is formed
we develop thinking skills.The possibility that is being actively pursued is
the ability of attaching sensors to the xenobots and give them the
capabilities of interconnected network system as in a nervous system and
the process of making them more efficient.
In a broad perspective the possible developments are limitless such as
from the ability to control sensors to the ability to think and connect itself to
the network sharing live data.
Imagine a world where xenobots are so advanced and developed that the
whole pandemic can be cured by spraying or vaporising the xenobots
swarm and every person is cured. Even though such a future is possible
with xenobots, we still have a long way to go.
Living Technologies
Many technologies are made of steel, concrete or plastic. That can make
them strong or flexible. But they also can create ecological and human
health problems, like the growing scourge of plastic pollution in the oceans
and the toxicity of many synthetic materials and electronics.
“The downside of living tissue is that it’s weak and it degrades,” says
Bongard. “That’s why we use steel. But organisms have 4.5 billion years of
practice at regenerating themselves and going on for decades.” And when
they stop working — death — they usually fall apart harmlessly.
“These xenobots are fully biodegradable,” says Bongard, “when they’re
done with their job after seven days, they’re just dead skin cells.”
Your laptop is a powerful technology. But try cutting it in half. Doesn’t work
so well. In the new experiments, the scientists cut the xenobots and
watched what happened. “We sliced the robot almost in half and it stitches
itself back up and keeps going,” says Bongard. “And this is something you
can’t do with typical machines.”
It is similar to a vaccine where you first develop the vaccine to test its
efficacy and then try to find out any side effects and then make changes
accordingly.
To speak comparatively the xenobots are first initially developed and then
tested for the ability to perform the assigned tasks and when we achieve a
acceptable result, they are
carefully analysed for improvements and
future development possibilities.
Ethical Concerns
The ethical concerns related to the xenobots can be the fact they are cells
extracted from animals and they are living organisms that are being
enslaved. To clarify this are two important points.
1. These xenobots are made from the cells of frogs and the frogs are
not killed in the process. So as per the laws it’s ethical to perform the
process.
2. The xenobots themselves are incapable of any kind of thinking or
feeling due to their lack of brain or a thinking unit and they are
artificial beings made out of cells and electronics which is an entirely
different class of laws when it comes to ethical concerns.
Considering all the factors there are no major ethical concerns that need to
be addressed at the moment relating to the creation and use of xenobots.
Thank for reading we hope you enjoyed
This Xenobots Article are written by the following interns under VIEH Group internship program
Saquib Saifee
Khush Patil
Gudepu Sai Raja
Nitika Thingalaya
Nayani Krishnaprasad
Bhoomi Dangar
Tirth Shah
Priyesh Singh
Sujit Babar
Sajal Sharma
