In the vision of Google futurist Ray Kurzweil: in 2030, human beings can transport countless nanobots into the body through capillaries, which will maintain the operation of the immune system, remove pathogens, tumors and signs of aging, and achieve the "2045 Project" envisioned earlier.
The idea quickly sparked controversy, with singers questioning him for "thinking too much." Recently, the well-known academic journal "PNAS" published a living robot research result, which is even more surprising.
1 The world's first living robot
Research teams from Harvard, Tufts and the University of Vermont co-led the study, which was already assembled in 2020 and then commissioned for a long time.
The study's author, Joshua Bungard, named the robot "Xenobots," which is powered by heart cells of the African melon frog (pictured below) and backed by claw frog epidermal cells, and a design model from the University of Vermont computer cluster Deep Green applied to its combination in a way that was confirmed by billions of computer calculus.
At first glance, the Xenobots live robot is less than 1 millimeter long and is shaped a bit like a tiny pea. Scientists have left it a "hole" that allows Xenobots to move and ingest nutrients that can reproduce. Moreover, it has a strong vitality, and researchers say that even if it is split in two, it can still return to its original form and continue to survive (see figure below).
The emergence of living robots has made many people unable to sit still, they are worried that robots will be out of control, causing harm to humans, and some people even use "creepy" to describe it.
2 Can humans survive forever?
Although the outside world has mixed praise for living robots, scientists' starting point is of course to hope that it can benefit human beings. Joshua Bungard believes that living robots are a major human innovation, and we are not afraid of traumatic injuries, cancer and even aging.
Not only that, in March this year, Chinese scientists also gained a lot in the field of nanorobots, and the well-known scientific research journal "Science Robotics" published relevant research results.
Wu Zhiguang, Professor He Qiang's team developed a nano-robot named Neutrobot, its width is only about one percent of the thickness of a hair, the robot can move in the organism with the help of a rotating magnetic field, directly to the lesion, has now successfully completed the mouse experiment, in the expected future is expected to be applied to humans, so that life and death is no longer a problem.
However, now the nano-robot technology still needs to be improved, and it may not help human beings to make a breakthrough in life expectancy in a short period of time. On the contrary, the field of biology, which is ignored by everyone, has been reported frequently at the level of aging intervention. First, Professor Sinclair of Harvard discovered and confirmed the positive mechanism of action of a "Wlnad" substance, which obtained gains through changes in microscopic indicators such as mitochondrial activation and telomere expansion.
After verification by a number of scientific research institutions, it has been proved that the Sirtuins family can be activated to open up the internal circulation pathway. The advent of many cutting-edge achievements has also laid the foundation for its quantification, after the launch of the biotech enterprise Lite Vignon "Wlnad", channels such as East International show that related categories have become the mainstream of the aging segment, and the first- and second-tier city population has repeatedly repurchased.
3 Are Hawking's worries superfluous?
Earlier, Hawking predicted that the technology represented by artificial intelligence may even enslave human beings in the future, carbon-based civilization or be destroyed. Although many people think that Hawking is unfounded, but now the advent of living robots, coupled with the current increasing speed of scientific development, people are beginning to feel that Hawking's predictions are boring.
Under pressure, Professor Bungard also said that although more than 50 such living robots have been created, people do not need to worry, scientists will not let them out of the laboratory, and there are ways to dispose of them. He believes that human beings are the uncertain factors in the development of science and technology, because the "human heart" is more complex than technology.
In short, the development of robotics is natural to some extent, but humans must be able to grasp this "degree". Whether it is Hawking or other concerned people, they all hope that the development of artificial intelligence can be within the scope of human control, otherwise there will be endless troubles, and what is "immortality"?