Darwin’s Devices
What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology, by John Long
Years ago, Long realized there was something fishy about robots — that is, robots could be made to be fishlike.
Director of the Interdisciplinary Robotics Research Laboratory at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Long reflects on his career as a biologist who uses robots to study fish evolution. Up front, he tackles the social hazards that come with his occupation, fielding questions like, “What do robots have to do with biology?”
Though it might be true that the best model for any organism is the organism itself, Long argues that robotic devices can offer answers to difficult questions. For one thing, scientists can construct replicas of extinct animals. As Long illustrates with his early experiments tracking tail stiffness and feeding behaviors in man-made generations of robotic fish, these devices can provide clues to how real animals may have evolved.