Computers are, after all, frighteningly complex state machines. Quite of bit of the software we write can be modeled as a state machine, too. A great technological achievement by humans? Turns out, state machines exist in some of nature’s tiniest natural computers, according to biologists studying Euplotes eurystomus, a kind of water-dwelling eukaryote. This single-cell organism uses fourteen protolegs known as cirri that move in a particular gait, in response to certain stimuli.
As you might expect, a single-celled organism doesn’t have the infrastructure to support a brain, so scientists wondered what could control the way the beast walks using the cirri. The answer was fibers made of bundles of microtubles that acted as a mechanical state machine.
While we are used to state machines using bi-stable electronic elements, older machines often used cams and microswitches along with a timing motor. For example, a phone answering machine might have a three-minute motor. One cam would depress a micro switch to run the outgoing message for 15 seconds. Then another cam would depress a microswitch to start recording, and a final switch and cam would keep the motor running until the very end. To start the process, a ringing phone would goose the motor so that that last cam engaged. Simple and no computer needed. The “brain fibers” of the Euplotes seem to work in a similar way. They enforce which states can be reached from what other states and react to outside stimuli, as well.
Is any of this practical? Maybe not, although we often see technology mimic biological systems. But we can’t help but wonder if future microscopic-scale machines might not need this same sort of mechanical state machine for many purposes, including locomotion.
You can apparently make single-cell organisms your servants, more or less. We’ve covered state machines many times if you need a refresher.
Boston Dynamics could use it.
ok lets start porting doom.
hold my coffee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8oIitQN2M4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stentor_roeselii
More on this subject!
Programmable digital logic with I/O has already been implemented using synthetic DNA in living cells. Nature has also evolved cells that produce, modulate, or detect light therefore everything is in place to create the IoC, Internet of Cells based on a self organising optical mesh network.
GGCC – Glowing Goo Compiler Collection
Frankly, I’m a bit surprised we don’t see more of this. However, the total lack of evidence of this happening on a multicellular level demonstrates just how effective chemical messaging is in comparison.
There is more of this from 2019 on other organisms but my posts are not being whitelisted due to harmless youtube and wiki links.
/wiki/Stentor_roeselii
/watch?v=E8oIitQN2M4
Behaviour of the Lower Organisms (1906), Jennings et al.
So I repost it again this way until it is whitelisted.
insane to think it’s black listed.
Likely comments are trying to weed out spam
Probably blacklists links in general, unless your comments with links have been allowed often enough.
There are people who are talking about “nanobots” smaller than human cells with the thought that they’re complex and powerful like a desktop PC shrunken down a billion times, so they can do all sorts of dangerous and mischievous things. They call them “smart dust” and “grey goo” etc.
In the real world, almost all of the complexity of an organism is required simply to exist and stay alive, let alone do anything smart. There’s an enormous overhead going from dumb molecules and chemical reactions to something that can perform even the simplest abstract computational task.
Ahhh computers are turing machines, which contain a state machine, but also includes some kind of read/write memory. Be careful with the facts please.