The fusion of the organic and synthetic

[funkervogt]

In the far future, I believe organic and synthetic life forms will fuse, meaning they will share each other's qualities. Imagine things like cells that can use electricity, or that have tiny computers and sensors endowing them with intelligence and the ability to work together. Imagine machines that can extract energy by consuming organic matter, and that have soft bodies.

I'll use this thread to display artistic renditions that match what I envision.

[funkervogt]

To start, I present the art of Andrew Lincoln Nelson.

http://www.nelsonrobotics.org/robotchild_web/

[Vakanai]

Imagine machines that can extract energy by consuming organic matter, and that have soft bodies.

My dream for the future is to have the benefits of organic life and technological being. Like I don't want to hook up to a charger or stand on a wireless charging platform, and "wireless charging everywhere" sounds like a horribly inefficient waste of energy as most energy spent this way would never charge anything but instead escape and dissipate,which seems kind of pro-entrophy. I'd like to just eat and drink like I do now and be fueled that way. Plus eating and drinking is an enjoyable pastime, and there's also a valuable social element to eating/drinking, family dinners and holidays being big examples, but also for dating, or having a coffee with a friend, among other examples. So even if it isn't the sole means we may power ourselves, I believe it will still be a major means of human fueling/charging even if we're no longer fully biological creatures, or even partially biological.

I also believe in the future of soft robotics. I don't want motors and engines whirring away in my future body. I like to imagine that most humanoid bodies will be devoid of such things, using instead artificial muscles many times more efficient and powerful than biological muscles. Although artificial muscles are in such an early state still I imagine we'll need AGI or at least a lot of very powerful narrow AIs to see any improvement on that front.

So digestion and muscles, inspired by nature but far beyond the limits of nature and biology. The human form in more than just shape, but synthetic. I even believe most robots and transhumans will copy nature further by being composed of synthetic cells, nanobots really. Imagine if we could build things like cells do, make robotic bones and organs in a way. Cell like robots that grow and divide and build a metal bone with nerve-like sensors throughout to track tension and wear, cracks and breaks, that can heal damage like cells can but give you data on everything. Same as the bone, imagine soft robotic muscles made the same way, cell like nanobots building artificial muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, all many times stronger than anything nature and biology could create. Then apply this same idea to robotic skin. A future robotic person might resemble a biological human in structure in many ways, but the materials would be vastly superior than what biological humans will ever know. Your body can't incorporate layers of aerogel for heat resistance and graphene for strength, can't allocate titanium filled bots to act as bone cells, can't give you fingernails of diamond.

A fusion of organic and synthetic properties is my dream. I want to be able to live without ever needing to take a solitary breath, but when I speak I don't want to do so through electronic speakers that might sound distorted or artificial, but with lungs and vocal chords acting in unison. I just don't need those lungs to be organic, at threat of picking up some viral infection that makes me sick or need to cough. The benefits of both the human and robotic in one form. Seriously, science fiction still depicts robots as either Terminator like skeletons needing motors or hydraulics, or these plastic looking Iphone white bots with again motors and engines to work. But imagine a robot of muscle and tendon and ligaments just as strong if not stronger than Terminator. Imagine robots healing wounds in a similar way we heal wounds, but faster. A robot that crash lands on an alien moon might start looking terribly damaged, but in quick time shows only healed "scab and scar tissue" where something akin to platelets heals the cuts in the skin, the tears in the muscles, the breaks in the bones. Hard to imagine a Terminator doing that, not counting the liquid metal models which is a whole different conversation.


Anyways, that's where my mind goes. Sadly most science fiction, and most current science research, doesn't do there, continuing to give us robots that look the same way we've always imagined them - metal fused and bolted together in pretty traditional mechanical ways.