Last time I imagined things taking to the air, and I closed with the implications of a murmuration of birds. My intent was to make this post highly speculative, marching through potential applications for robotic birds and insects, and ending with smart dust.
I’m still speculative, but I’m going to focus particularly on smart insects, which offer more than enough possibilities to engage the imagination.
Much of what is already in progress is tied to defense and security. A tiny tethered flying robot has been prototyped by Harvard researchers. Meanwhile, at Tokyo University, what may prove to be a shorter path to smart insects is in the works, insect-machine hybrids.
These bugs could get to places that are otherwise inaccessible and send back data. Surveillance and spying are obvious uses (provided their buzzing doesn’t give them away). A controlled swarm might attack a troublemaker. A cloud might sweep over crowds and sniff for bombs and stress hormones. They might be used to draw attention (or fire), shielding other ordinance from enemies.
The idea has been floated that tiny flying robots could pollinate crops. The payload is reasonable, but the scale of operations makes this seem far-fetched and sad – almost the definition of a bad technological fix. A more reasonable payload might be vaccines. Modeling robots on mosquitoes might make it possible protecting kids in Pakistan from polio.
I imagine, eventually, environmental uses will be the predominant application of smart insects. Satellites, detection stations, ground crews, and even citizen scientists armed with modified smartphones still leave a large portion of the job of monitoring pollution and other environmental threats undone. Insects can fly up into the canopies of trees, burrow into the earth, dig into ice caps, swim in lakes and oceans. Access plus detectors plus communications will equal a more complete picture of our environment and allow for better modeling and earlier detection of emerging problems.
After defense, play and entertainment seem to be the first to push the limits of new technologies. I can imagine shows that include the humming of smart cicadas and coordinated light shows of fireflies. Teams might race horseflies or compete to finish long distance treks with monarch butterflies.
I suspect the most interesting possibilities will be found when people explore swarms, especially mixed community swarms. The relative complexity of a termite community, with a variety of specialized insects working together, may become the model that will be most disruptive.