Synopsis: Fish’n’Robots was a TED Talk given by Maurizio Porfiri on his findings on Robotic Fish. He hopes to use robotics and biomimetics* to help better understand and improve nature.
Questions:
- Porfiri used fish because of their similar genetics to humans and their qualities that allow for the robotic fish to be accepted. However how self aware and smart are fish as opposed to other organisms? Will his finding and research stand when applied to larger ‘smarter’ organisms?
- If these findings are to be developed how realistic must robots become to truly mimic and blend in with nature? How long will this take?
- If in fact completely realistic robots are invented how will it affect of sense of reality. What are the ethical implications
- The children naturally added components to the robotic fish such as propellers to make them more like fish. Is it an inherent and general belief then that robots actually should imitate nature but in physique and action?
Reflection:
These questions all stem from a desire to answer – “What are the benefits of Bio-Inspired Robotics?” Should we even be trying to create robots and will this actually be beneficial to nature and not just humans. I believe that Porfiri touches on some good points. By being able to understand nature we can better help preserve it. Since we cannot yet communicate with nature (traditionally speaking) we can at least try to imitate and manipulate it until we better understand it.
*Biomimetics is a field of investigation which seeks to imitate nature to address nature