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xanthes94 t1_isfcabf wrote

From my understanding they don’t display complex behavior. Experiments ran with nano bots show that colony organisms that display “complex behavior” when moving is just a side effect of random motion. When you have a lot of things all performing random motion, they tend to organize because thermodynamics favors that they all move a certain way.

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Dave30954 t1_isgcf9e wrote

Ooh! That’s so cool, what is it that they all tend to do?

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p-terydactyl t1_ishkw49 wrote

The complex behavior would be how we manipulate those simple processes kind of like binary, it's only 1 and 0 but we can manipulate it to do extremely complex tasks

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VivendusMoriendumEst t1_isi9llq wrote

Yeah the way I'd put it, the "behavior" is more a result of the physical interaction of the parts and environment rather than the active sensation-response-sensation system of ants and whatnot

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antiquemule t1_isiwrzx wrote

Yep. I am underwhelmed. The PR offices of MIT and Harvard love overselling this kind of stuff.

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MilkofGuthix t1_isgr7cv wrote

Ahh similar to the game of life?

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SkooksOnReddit t1_ish21dc wrote

Game of life is set on simple rules. What the commenter described is expending the least amount of energy.

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S1umL0rdAkr0n t1_iseqvm9 wrote

Nano bots! There's no place to run!

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mister____mime t1_isffk2b wrote

Eaten by a swarm of nano bots sounds horrible but it’s kind of an exciting way to go if you think about it.

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HollandJim t1_ises1ki wrote

Oh great. You want Moonfall? Because that’s how you get Moonfall.

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AldoLagana t1_isewm1o wrote

I cannot wait to see the evil that this can conjure.

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Bierbart12 t1_isesmoq wrote

Finally. Nanobots will probably start a new age

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SiliconeArmadildo t1_ishoc6x wrote

So we don't have to go 900 year into the future using a stolen Klingon time crystal to get programmable matter?

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tpro72 t1_isguuad wrote

Ahh smart people ruining the world... Yess! FOR THE WIN

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Mcboomsauce t1_isf66o7 wrote

Finally, something nobody wanted

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greg0525 t1_isezav6 wrote

So basically they have created intelligent life.

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VoilaVoilaWashington t1_isfdaal wrote

Not really. The nanoparticles will only perform a single way when combined that way, so it's basically just a human lining up dominos to knock over in an artistic way.

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greg0525 t1_isfosk8 wrote

I see. So they are not able to do much more.

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