Difference between revisions of "What is "Reality"?"

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<p><b>Introduction</b></p>
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<p><img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/11/27/238BECEB00000578-2851663-Earlier_this_year_the_OpenWorm_project_ran_a_successful_digital_-13_1417087199076.jpg" alt="" /></p>
 
<p>The worm Caenorhabditis elegans has just 300 neurons and around 1,000 cells - and now a robot has been created that mimics the actions of this simple organism. The OpenWorm team from California is making a 'digital' worm. Their project is recreating the neurons and cells in C. elegans, the simplest organism we know of. By making a digital worm the team hope to create artificial life. They have implanted the digital 'mind' of the worm into a Lego machine.</p>
 
<p>The worm Caenorhabditis elegans has just 300 neurons and around 1,000 cells - and now a robot has been created that mimics the actions of this simple organism. The OpenWorm team from California is making a 'digital' worm. Their project is recreating the neurons and cells in C. elegans, the simplest organism we know of. By making a digital worm the team hope to create artificial life. They have implanted the digital 'mind' of the worm into a Lego machine.</p>
 
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<div>The OpenWorm team from California is making a 'digital' worm. Their project is recreating the neurons and cells in C. elegans, the simplest organism we know of. By making a digital worm the team hope to create artificial life. They have implanted the digital 'mind' of the worm into a Lego machine.&nbsp;The OpenWorm project, a global effort including researchers from the US and UK, is attempting to create the world&rsquo;s first digital animal.&nbsp;Earlier this year they ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of a worm you can download onto your computer.</div>
 
<div>The OpenWorm team from California is making a 'digital' worm. Their project is recreating the neurons and cells in C. elegans, the simplest organism we know of. By making a digital worm the team hope to create artificial life. They have implanted the digital 'mind' of the worm into a Lego machine.&nbsp;The OpenWorm project, a global effort including researchers from the US and UK, is attempting to create the world&rsquo;s first digital animal.&nbsp;Earlier this year they ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of a worm you can download onto your computer.</div>
 
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<div>The Caenorhabditis elegans nematode is only around 0.04 inches (1mm) in length, is transparent and feeds on bacteria, such as E. coli. It moves around in water at a rate of about 0.04 inches (1mm) per second.&nbsp;Despite being composed of just 1,000 cells, the creature exhibits relatively advanced behaviour such as finding a mate and avoiding predators.&nbsp;The worm has been the focus of huge amounts of research and was the first multi-celled organism to have its entire genome mapped.&nbsp;And they have also created a robot that mimics the actions of a real-life worm.&nbsp;C. elegans is one of the simplest forms of life we know, thanks to its limited neurons and cells, and thus researchers have been able to accurately map its body.&nbsp;The worm, though simple, contains 80 per cent of the same genes as humans and can be studied as a more basic version of complex life.&nbsp;With a brain, stomach and bodily functions, the worm has provided scientists with a way to study life on a much smaller and more manageable scale.&nbsp;In this latest project the researchers mapped the entire physiology of a C. elegans organism.&nbsp;They then recreated the worm&rsquo;s brain, cells and more in digital form, complete with neurons &lsquo;firing&rsquo; to make decisions.&nbsp;Scientists re-create worm brain with Lego machine</div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">What is &ldquo;Reality&rdquo;?</span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">To discuss about reality, we must define what reality is. Reality is the conjectured state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined[1]. Certain ideas from physics, philosophy, sociology, literary criticism, and other fields shape various theories of reality. Such attitudes are summarized in the popular statement, &quot;Perception is reality&quot; or &quot;Life is how you perceive reality&quot; or &quot;reality is what you can get away with&quot; (Robert Anton Wilson). According to these concepts, I would like to define reality is &ldquo;the thing(s) can be observed and perceived by many people&rdquo;, in other words, &ldquo;objectively existing thing(s)&rdquo;.</p>
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<div>In a recent comment on futrology site Edge, SpaceX and Tesla Motors chief Elon Musk warned of the dangers of artificial intelligence. &nbsp;In his comment he feared that the risk of &lsquo;something seriously dangerous happening&rsquo; could be in as few as five years.&nbsp;Although he doesn&rsquo;t go into detail, he alludes to &lsquo;digital superintelligences&rsquo; and internet bots as being among the potential problems facing humanity.&nbsp;In the comment he says the pace of progress in AI is &lsquo;incredibly fast&rsquo;.&nbsp;He continued: &lsquo;I am not alone in thinking we should be worried.&nbsp;&lsquo;The leading AI companies have taken great steps to ensure safety.&nbsp;&lsquo;They recognise the danger, but believe that they can shape and control the digital superintelligences and prevent bad ones from escaping into the internet. That remains to be seen&hellip;&rsquo; &nbsp;The ultimate goal of the project is to give people access to their own digital worm called WormSim to study on their computers through the OpenWorm project.&nbsp;Following the successful Kickstarter campaign, this should be available next year.&nbsp;But they have also inserted the artificial brain of the worm into a Lego machine, specifically a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot.&nbsp;By recreating the 302 neurons and 959 cells of this tiny nematode worm, the robot can then be left to &lsquo;mimic&rsquo; the actions of a real-life worm.&nbsp;This means it moves around, runs into obstacles like walls and also turns.&nbsp;The robot is very basic for now, and does not possess the ability to perform more complex functions such as eating.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s an important step, though, to creating artificial life that can think for itself.&nbsp;While this worm is a very basic form of life, it may be a precursor to making much more complex animals.&nbsp;This will be a huge undertaking, though - even a mouse has 22 million neurons in its brain.&nbsp;&lsquo;The mere act of trying to put a working model together causes us to realise what we know and what we don't know,&rsquo; John Long, a roboticist and neuroscientist at Vassar College in New York State, told New Scientist.</div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">As an example of reality, we discussed artificial <i>C.elegans</i> of The OpenWorm project in class. What I have to claim about this &ldquo;Bioinformatics&rdquo; class is this: is this artificial <i>C.elegans</i> is a &ldquo;real organism&rdquo;? In biology, major characteristics of life are seven: cell &amp; organization, energy use and metabolism, responds to stimuli, regulation and homeostasis, growth and development, reproduction, and biological evolution. Then, does this worm satisfy these features?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">To know this, we have to know some detail of the artificial organism. In this latest The OpenWorm project, the researchers mapped the entire physiology of a C. elegans organism. They recreated the worm&rsquo;s brain, cells in digital. They have inserted the artificial brain of the worm into a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot. By recreating the 302 neurons and 959 cells of this tiny nematode worm, the robot can then be left to &lsquo;mimic&rsquo; the actions of a real-life worm. The robot is very basic and does not execute complex functions[2].<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">We can get some important information from this; Firstly, it is not made of cells, of course, but it is organized well to achieve simple movement. Secondly, energy use and metabolism are done by electronical way. Thirdly,&nbsp;it recognize environment, even if it is very basic, and respond to object(s). Fourthly, it cannot regulate its own body well, and needs to be adjust by human. Fifthly, it cannot growth itself. Sixthly, it cannot reproduce offspring also. Fianlly, it does not have ability to evolve itself. By these factors, we cannot call this robot as organism. </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Nonetheless, ultimate goal of this robot is imitation of C.elegans, such that regulation and growth would be achieved in future. And self-reproduction of robot is still developing[2]. What we can assume is that reproduction and evolution of the robot can be possible maybe in near future, and that kind of robot can fit for major features of life, even we cannot imagine that kind of thing yet.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">In my personal opinion, reality and real organism can be objective and persived by numerous people, like I referred above already, so this C.elegans robot can show possiblity of change of definition about reality and real life.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">&nbsp;</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">Reference</span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">[1] Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">[2] http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2005/05/researchers-build-robot-can-reproduce&nbsp;</p>
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Latest revision as of 16:15, 19 June 2015

Introduction

The worm Caenorhabditis elegans has just 300 neurons and around 1,000 cells - and now a robot has been created that mimics the actions of this simple organism. The OpenWorm team from California is making a 'digital' worm. Their project is recreating the neurons and cells in C. elegans, the simplest organism we know of. By making a digital worm the team hope to create artificial life. They have implanted the digital 'mind' of the worm into a Lego machine.

 
The OpenWorm team from California is making a 'digital' worm. Their project is recreating the neurons and cells in C. elegans, the simplest organism we know of. By making a digital worm the team hope to create artificial life. They have implanted the digital 'mind' of the worm into a Lego machine. The OpenWorm project, a global effort including researchers from the US and UK, is attempting to create the world’s first digital animal. Earlier this year they ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of a worm you can download onto your computer.
 

What is “Reality”?

To discuss about reality, we must define what reality is. Reality is the conjectured state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined[1]. Certain ideas from physics, philosophy, sociology, literary criticism, and other fields shape various theories of reality. Such attitudes are summarized in the popular statement, "Perception is reality" or "Life is how you perceive reality" or "reality is what you can get away with" (Robert Anton Wilson). According to these concepts, I would like to define reality is “the thing(s) can be observed and perceived by many people”, in other words, “objectively existing thing(s)”.

As an example of reality, we discussed artificial C.elegans of The OpenWorm project in class. What I have to claim about this “Bioinformatics” class is this: is this artificial C.elegans is a “real organism”? In biology, major characteristics of life are seven: cell & organization, energy use and metabolism, responds to stimuli, regulation and homeostasis, growth and development, reproduction, and biological evolution. Then, does this worm satisfy these features?<o:p></o:p>

To know this, we have to know some detail of the artificial organism. In this latest The OpenWorm project, the researchers mapped the entire physiology of a C. elegans organism. They recreated the worm’s brain, cells in digital. They have inserted the artificial brain of the worm into a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot. By recreating the 302 neurons and 959 cells of this tiny nematode worm, the robot can then be left to ‘mimic’ the actions of a real-life worm. The robot is very basic and does not execute complex functions[2].<o:p></o:p>

We can get some important information from this; Firstly, it is not made of cells, of course, but it is organized well to achieve simple movement. Secondly, energy use and metabolism are done by electronical way. Thirdly, it recognize environment, even if it is very basic, and respond to object(s). Fourthly, it cannot regulate its own body well, and needs to be adjust by human. Fifthly, it cannot growth itself. Sixthly, it cannot reproduce offspring also. Fianlly, it does not have ability to evolve itself. By these factors, we cannot call this robot as organism.

Nonetheless, ultimate goal of this robot is imitation of C.elegans, such that regulation and growth would be achieved in future. And self-reproduction of robot is still developing[2]. What we can assume is that reproduction and evolution of the robot can be possible maybe in near future, and that kind of robot can fit for major features of life, even we cannot imagine that kind of thing yet.

In my personal opinion, reality and real organism can be objective and persived by numerous people, like I referred above already, so this C.elegans robot can show possiblity of change of definition about reality and real life.

 

Reference

[1] Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English

[2] http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2005/05/researchers-build-robot-can-reproduce 

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