Biomimicry is learning from nature. Mimicking nature for our own applications. We have always looked up to nature for inspiration. What items can you think of that were invented by looking up to the nature? We dreamed about flying looking at the birds, right? What else?
The Japanese high-speed trains took inspiration from the beak of the Kingfisher and the wings of the falcon. Made the Nose of the train in the shape of Kingfisher’s beak. Why, you ask? The Train would create a sonic boom while getting out of tunnels. Engineers tried many designs. Travelling in and out of a tunnel is like travelling through different medium of pressure. Kingfisher does dives into the water without a splash, thanks to its beak.
The sound crickets make at night. It’s so loud as compared to their size! You know how? They don’t have any loudspeakers. It’s because of the comb-like structure in their hind legs, which they rub together to create the sound. Inspired by this, improvement is being done in speaker technology, to produce higher sound output from a tiny device.
Lotus leaves are waterproof. Water drops never stick to them, they just roll off. It’s not any chemical. It’s the physical texture of the leaves. Companies are using this to create better paint coats for building and cars. Termite towers are great for ideas on natural ventilation and cooling system for skyscrapers. The famous honeycomb structure is used in many places for its sturdiness and durability.
We talked about inspiration from the outside. What if we look for inspiration in our own body. Here are are my observations and things that amze me:
Humans are on top of the food chain. We have the most complex bodies. Especially in the innovation and thinking section. It takes millions of years for animals to evolve to suit to their environment, but humans manipulated nature around them to suit their needs. To keep warm we used fire and coats made out of animal skin instead of evolving our skin to become thick. Intelligence was the biggest milestone in the evolution of humans.
The Brain– Replicating a brain is going to be the epitome of our pursuit for invention. How close is our computing, processing and data storage technology? The Brain has 86 Billion neurons, constantly communicating with each other and processing information. You know how much data the brain stores? 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). All that just when just 1.4 Kg. Such densely packed information. Without any overheating (in most cases :p). Brains are also smart at storing info. We collect data through all our 5 senses and additional data that is created by our thoughts and imagination. Imagine how much data that is, for comparison sake: Raw 4k video footage of just 2 min takes up 23.88GB. We are recording at much higher quality throughout the day for so many years! The brain doesn’t store all the info. It’s smart. It’s very picky in sorting and storing info into short term and long term memory. We have to train our brain to store info that we consciously think is important. Brains are also so advance in giving instructions and controlling the whole body compare it with the most advanced robot of the day and you will know how large is our scope for advancement.
‘If 3D model is made of our brain, will we have consiousness?’ My answer to this question on Reddit:
I think there is a high possibility. But we need to understand our brain is much more in detail first. Computers have 1 and 0s but neuroscientists have found more than 5 types of signals in the brain. It interacts will all ist parts. It's not a linear circuit or system, a network of cross-connection. Like diffrent PCs intertated. Like internet of things between or components that perform specific tasks. Also, our brain cells are neuroplastic. Considering all that is done. We, Will, have to then give instructions to the model to develop its consciousness. Nature controls our urges, fear, thought process, love, anger, jealousy etc. It all comes down to human evolution and survival of the gene. The 3D model will have been given some agendas to serve or collaborate with us. Introspection is also a part of consciousness, what should these models introspect about? This was about humans. But do animals have consciousness,? they sure have feelings. If they do have consciousness, we can put consciousness at different levels. Eg A dog is similar to a two-year-old human. So we could select the level of consciousness for the model. Or if we progress far ahead, we could transfer a person's consciousness and see how that goes. Quantum computing is opening new horizons and possibilities. It's no more about 1s and 0s. Where does our sense of right or wrong come from? How would we program that in our model? Our body is like a robot that recreates all its square parts on its own. Like we lose dead cells and create new ones. Our brain is neuroplastic. That means it can upgrade its self learn new skills on its own.
Regeneration and Healing: All cells in our body regenerate themselves an average of 7 years: some taking couple of days and a few take a decade. Our scars and wounds are healed and our body develops antibodies to fight diseases. Imagine robots doing that, repairing and upgrading themselves on their own.
Energy consumption: our body is so advanced that it uses renewable energy, generates energy from other biomaterials, breaks down molecules and extracts a maximum of energy. Out of all the energy, our brain takes up 20% even though it weighs only 2% of the body mass.
Consciousness is peculiar. Making the right choices with gut instinct has proofs in everyone’s experience. Without looking we feel if someone is around, how come?
Balancing: it’s a big deal to balance such a huge mass on just 2 legs and always maintain the right centre of gravity. We do it unconsciously. Boston Dynamics are leaders in this field.
So now that you horizons of curiocity and inquiry have increased, what are your current thoughts, Let me know in the comments!
Refrence and further info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomimetics
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-memory-capacity/