Animals : Robots :: Plants : ??
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The essence of animals is a) predation-derived energy/material balance b) mobility
A plant makes has a primary production based energy material balance. Modulo venus flytraps.
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Yeah, solar panels obv... as well as windmills etc. But those map to leaf/photosynthesis subsystems, not whole plants. At minimum whole plants need a material extraction and synthesis subsystem working off "soil."
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Replying to @vgr
Solar Panels
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Are there machines smaller than chemical plants that turn simple inorganic chemicals into complex organic ones? Especially gases?
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We could use a good name for this class of machines, analogous to "robot."
"Robot" comes from Czech for "forced labor" etymonline.com/word/robot
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In honor of the etymology of 'robot' the plant equivalent should also be derived from Czech. Maybe something derived from 'autonomous factory.'
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Who am I kidding. No hope for establishing a new word. It's gonna be plantbot.
What's the simplest plantbot you can think of? Must use ambient energy and produce chemical synthesis from available raw material and some minimal "fertilizer"
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I want to make a plantbot to go with my rover robot. I know some boundary conditions: a solar panel, battery, and the simplest possible brain (Arduino or if possible, no microcontroller at all). It should take materials into a reaction chamber and make something useful.
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