New sequel to “blade Runner,” returns us to a world where clever androids, the collected organic parts of the body, challenge the power and emotion of their creators-people. Fumiya Iida collects robots, inspired by the creations of nature, and asks the question: how our own technology is close to that to create “Replicants” of “blade Runner 2049”?
You see, we are too far away from creating robots with human abilities. But the achievements in the so-called soft robotics show a promising path forward for technologies that can become the new basis for androids of the future.
From a scientific point of view the biggest problem is the repetition of the complexity of the human body. Each of us is composed of millions and millions of cells, and we have no idea how to build such a complex machine that will be indistinguishable from us humans. The most complex machines today, such as the world’s largest aircraft, the Airbus A380, is made up of millions of parts. But in order to fit the level of human complexity, they must still be a million times harder qualitatively and quantitatively.
Currently, there are three different ways to blur the line between humans and robots. Unfortunately, these approaches represent only a starting point and not even close to suitable for recreating the world of “blade Runner”.
There are humanoid robots, assembled from scratch and is equipped with artificial sensors, motors and computers, which together recreate the human body and movement. However, the improvement of the modern androids will not bring them closer to the people, because every artificial component like sensors or engines are hopelessly primitive compared to biological counterparts.
There is also the technology of creation of the cyborg, when the human body is enhanced and complemented by machines, like robotic limbs and wearable or implantable devices. These technologies are very far from matching our own body parts.
Finally, there are methods of genetic manipulation, the genetic code of an organism is altered to modify the body of the organism. Although we were able to identify specific genes and learned how to manipulate them, we still have limited understanding about how genetic code raises a whole person. Thus, we do not know to what extent can program code to create anything we wish.
Soft robotics: a way forward?
And yet we can move robotics closer to the world of “blade Runner” developing other technologies and, in particular, turning to nature for inspiration. A good example is the area of soft robotics. Over the past ten years, researchers robots have made significant efforts to make robots soft, deformable, flexible and compressible.
This kind of technology inspired by the fact that 90% of human body consists of soft substances, such as skin, hair and fabric. This is due to the fact that most of the fundamental functions of our body rely on the soft parts that can change shape, from hearts and lungs, pumping the fluid through the body, to eye lenses. Cells can even change the form to start the process of division, zamisljeni and ultimately the evolution of the body.
The softness of our bodies is the source of all the functionality of the body that needs it to stay alive. Having the ability to create soft machines, we could at least make a step into the world of robots “blade Runner”. The latest technological achievements include masterpieces like the artificial heart, made of soft functional materials, which pumps the liquid in the deformation process. Similarly, soft wearable gloves can make your grip stronger. A so-called “epidermal electronics” allow us to tattoo electronic circuits in our biological skin.
Softness is the key word, uniting people and technology. Sensors, motors, and computers suddenly integrated into the human body, when become soft, and the border between us and the external device will be mixed, as soft contact lenses became part of our eyes.
However, the most difficult task is how to make certain parts of the body of the soft robot is physically adaptable by self-healing, growth, and differentiation. In the end, every part of a living organism also lives in biological systems, allowing the body to adapt and grow, and this new feature will make machines indistinguishable from ourselves.
It is impossible to predict when our world will become similar to the world of “blade Runner”, and if that happens, it is probably far in the future. But while there is the desire to build a machine indistinguishable from humans, people will relentlessly move towards that goal and once it is reached.
Is it possible to create a “Replicant” in the style of “blade Runner”?
Ilya Hel