Xenobot ( first living robots ) question (help)

[Joeburke1985]

I was challenged by foolishly sharing you’re fb post about being Cristal clear “these are not robots “

I regret it greatly , as I do not know anywhere enough about the subject .. fool me .

This is a rebuttal I received about you’re statement I shared

can you please tell me what your definition of 'robot' would be, and why that these artificial assemblages of living cells should be excluded? It's not enough to just say something along the lines of, 'robots aren't made from living cells'. Of course a definition like that would exclude these things. But it wouldn't explain why that definition is to be preferred to any other, making your point true but banal.

To start the ball rolling, Wikipedia defines the word as follows:

'A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.'

It then goes on to describe something of the history of the word, including its common connection to humanoid or mechanical machines. If limited to that sort of thing then, yes, this would of course exclude these structures. But the word is now routinely used for non humanoid mechanisms.

'Xenobot'seems like a good word 'Living robots', maybe not so much. But it's not clear to me that it’s wrong .

Another was

I disagree. The cells require electricity to exist, they may be organic in essence, but definitely not in function...

Im sure you’re very busy and I am so sorry to disturb you
For my foolishness..

I thought it would be of interest of yourself to answer
It would also be educational for myself , so I may not make such a blinder again ..

Thank you Bernardo

[Soul_of_Shu]

Joe ... I've moved this topic into the general discussion section, as it is not a suggestion, or a question about forum-related technical problems, but rather about starting a discussion around what constitutes a conscious agent. As for the likelihood of Bernardo participating in any discussion here, despite there being a link to this forum on his blog, the fact is that he is not inclined to do so, and his affiliation with the forum is in name only. In almost a year since this version of the original forum was created, he has contributed perhaps 6 comments, and none at all for about the past 6 months. So while there may be some remote possibility that BK will respond, it's more likely that others here may have some input to offer.

[Martin_]

Observation 1: Just bouncing around other peoples ideas without having an informed opinion yourself gets you in exactly this kind of trouble
Observation 2: Either they're not robots, and the statment is false. Or they are robots, and the claim that they are the first living robots is false.

The article (https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/29/amer ... YcjhFkHTgE) says:

"Most people think of robots as made of metals and ceramics but it's not so much what a robot is made from but what it does, which is act on its own on behalf of people," said Josh Bongard, a computer science professor and robotics expert at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study.
"In that way it's a robot but it's also clearly an organism made from genetically unmodified frog cell."

And in that case, isn't that what sects are all about: making robots out of people, so serve a specific set of other people?

[Simon Adams]

I’m with Bernardo on this. The only way we can make anything living is by taking bits from living things and changing them or adding to them. A robot is something we create … as in we make it using our knowledge. If anyone can provide the code these ‘xenobots’ are running, or create one without starting with any living parts, or give a detailed description of HOW all the parts are doing what they do (rather than a functional description of WHAT they are doing), then perhaps you could start to call it a robot.

As it is, much of what goes on even in a simple cell is not understood enough for us to claim it as our creation.

As for the definition of a robot from the professor that Martin quoted: “it's not so much what a robot is made from but what it does, which is act on its own on behalf of people", then surely a guide dog is a robot, a dolphin in an aquarium is a robot etc…