THink about it, nature has created designs that are so much more ingenious and sometimes even more effective than any machanical device. It can fix itself, requiring no maintenance, can be manufactured from virtually zilch,
A good example is the artificial hear valve. Original designs used a caged ball configuration, where a fluid would puch the ball into a cage allowing flow, but close off the space when the flow was interupted. But these required that patients be on bloodthiners for the rest of their lives, and were nt totaly proof against clotting even so.
Modern varions use the paricardium tissue (the sack that encloses the heart) from animals draped over a metalic skeleton shaped to fit the valve it needs to replace. And the tissue is treated to remove any agents that may cause the human immune suytem to reject it.
Eventually we'll gain the ability to grow whole new organs out of a few cells.
Now imagine aplying this technology to everyday life, creating devices and equipment that repair temselves, are resistant to wear and tear, require no maintenance beside nutrition. Already many mechancal systems are mdled after the natural world, phased array cameras that thae many separate cameras linked together to get a very accurate immage modeled after the eye of an eagle, transition zones between hard prosthetics and softer tissue modled after the beak of an squid.
Out machines are becoming more and more "life like" every year.
A good example is the artificial hear valve. Original designs used a caged ball configuration, where a fluid would puch the ball into a cage allowing flow, but close off the space when the flow was interupted. But these required that patients be on bloodthiners for the rest of their lives, and were nt totaly proof against clotting even so.
Modern varions use the paricardium tissue (the sack that encloses the heart) from animals draped over a metalic skeleton shaped to fit the valve it needs to replace. And the tissue is treated to remove any agents that may cause the human immune suytem to reject it.
Eventually we'll gain the ability to grow whole new organs out of a few cells.
Now imagine aplying this technology to everyday life, creating devices and equipment that repair temselves, are resistant to wear and tear, require no maintenance beside nutrition. Already many mechancal systems are mdled after the natural world, phased array cameras that thae many separate cameras linked together to get a very accurate immage modeled after the eye of an eagle, transition zones between hard prosthetics and softer tissue modled after the beak of an squid.
Out machines are becoming more and more "life like" every year.
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