How to Build a Biological Machine Using Engineering Materials and Methods

Abstract

We present work in 3D printing electric motors from basic materials as the key to building a self-replicating machine to colonise the Moon. First, we explore the nature of the biological realm to ascertain its essence, particularly in relation to the origin of life when the inanimate became animate. We take an expansive view of this to ascertain parallels between the biological and the manufactured worlds. Life must have emerged from the available raw material on Earth and, similarly, a self-replicating machine must exploit and leverage the available resources on the Moon. We then examine these lessons to explore the construction of a self-replicating machine using a universal constructor. It is through the universal constructor that the actuator emerges as critical. We propose that 3D printing constitutes an analogue of the biological ribosome and that 3D printing may constitute a universal construction mechanism. Following a description of our progress in 3D printing motors, we suggest that this engineering effort can inform biology, that motors are a key facet of living organisms and illustrate the importance of motors in biology viewed from the perspective of engineering (in the Feynman spirit of “what I cannot create, I cannot understand”).

Are There Biomimetic Lessons from Genetic Regulatory Networks for Developing a Lunar Industrial Ecology?

“…The waste generated such as clays is non-toxic and has potential applications in building habitats [6] and in agricultural food production [7]. The lunar industrial ecology essentially constitutes a fan-in to a suite of 3D printing facilities forming the core of a bowtie configuration from which manufactured products fan out [8,9]. treated similarly but may be better sourced from meteoritic FeS).…”

“…Furthermore, transcriptional regulatory networks in bacteria have exhibited convergent evolution with independent evolution in different species [157]. Heat shock response in cells involves molecular heat shock chaperones as a universal genetic module under feedback control that provides robustness to heat stress by reversing protein unfolding [9]. We have addressed these factors of robustness elsewhere [158].…”

Lotka–Volterra models for extraterrestrial self-replicating probes

“…While minor mistakes in the replicating process would only create sub-variant probes, a bigger error might lead to a new population of SRPs that can no longer recognize the progenitor probe as “self” (as opposed to being “foreign”) and instead treat it as resource to be consumed. We will refer to such mutated SRPs as “predators,” while the rest as “preys.” This comparison with biological system is not entirely an analogy, since SRPs could be partially biological in the sense that they are artificial proteomic or molecular machines [ 24 , 25 ]. The idea is that predation might reduce the total number of SRPs and thus explains why we have not detected them.…”

“…We will refer to such mutated SRPs as "predators", while the rest as "preys". This comparison with biological system is not entirely an analogy, since SRPs could be partially biological in the sense that they are artificial proteomic or molecular machines [24,25]. The idea is that predation might reduce the total number of SRPs and thus explains why we have not detected them.…”

Robot Evolution: Ethical Concerns

“…However, this situation is changing rapidly and after the first major transition from "wetware" to software in the 20th century, evolution is at the verge of a second one, this time from software to hardware (Eiben and Smith 2015). Recent advances in and integration of evolutionary computation, robotics, 3D-printing, and automated assembly are enabling systems of physical robots that can autonomously reproduce and evolve (Brodbeck et al, 2015;Jelisavcic et al, 2017;Vujovic et al, 2017;Hale et al, 2019;Howard et al, 2019;Ellery 2020).…”