Cyborg Houseplant Can Drive Itself Toward the Light It Craves

During the impending robopocalypse , human beings will have to ward offfreakishly spry androids , robotic dogs , whatever the hellthisis , and , as new research from MIT suggest , quasi - sovereign , mobile automaton - plant life hybrid .

bring out Elowan , a automaton - plant hybriddesigned by Harpreet Sareen and Pattie Maes , both from MIT Media Lab . The system is a dependable cybernetic organism , though not the kind we ’re accustomed to reckon ; instead of conflate human with simple machine , these researcher have leveraged the internal electrical signals produce by plant to assure the actions of a two - wheeled robotic weapons platform . In test , Elowan was able to move toward a faint source — an action triggered by the flora itself .

Plants may seem soggy , but they ’re surprisingly electrical in nature . Our photosynthetic friends are equip with biological circuit capable of transmitting bio - electrochemical signaling between tissues and organ . These signals are triggered under special setting , such as when the flora is let out to visible light , a chemise in gravity ( or preference ) , a mechanical force ( like tinge ) , change in temperature , and when bruise . Indeed plants may not be mobile or demo consciousness , but they ’re armed with an assortment of magic trick to help them thrive and survive . The internal transmission of bio - electrochemical signals excites the cells and tissues within plant cell , prompting certain actions or response , such as tissue paper regeneration ( ontogenesis ) , the extending of leaves toward light , ortriggering a vindication against threats .

This active signal meshwork , as the new experiment in “ cyborg vegetation ” shows , can also be used to augment a plant ’s lifelike capableness . In this case , the movement of the plant is based on its internal bio - electrochemical signals , which prompt the wheeled automatonlike base to move toward a light seed .

In this proof - of - concept presentment , Sareen and Maes place silver medal electrodes into the plant stems , leaves , and root organization . An interface gimmick process and amplify the weak signals emitted by flora , and then transmitted these signals to the robotic gimmick . In tests , lamps were place on either side of Elowan . The plant could sense the light add up from the lighted side , lead in a signal response that triggered the movement toward the visible light . Thus , the plant - golem loan-blend go either leave or ripe by itself , where the “ agency of motility rest with the plant life , ” in the word of the research worker .

To be fair , the habit of the term “ agency ” may be a piece of a stretch . Plants do n’t have federal agency in the sense that they ’re able-bodied to make decision or exert free will . Rather , their internal circuitry and processes are being triggered by international stimuli , take them mindless automatons . The claim that Elowan ’s interior circuitry is take the cognitive process is fair , however .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

It ’s a neat experiment , both in terms of its scientific and esthetic aspect ( Sareen is also a visual artist and an assistant prof at the Parsons School of Design ) , but the organisation could be expanded or alter for hard-nosed practical software , as well . Part of the principle behind the project was to leverage the instinctive power of plants as a way to augment their capability even further . Sareen imagine extensions to cybernetic plants that could reserve them to grow and represent themselves in novel slipway . What ’s more , these symbiotic systems could also be used to power next electronic systems more organically , resulting in devices capable of ego - power , ego - repair , and self - growth .

It ’s all very exciting stuff — and we ’re finally congeal the stage for a plant - based technological singularity . I , for one , look forward to welcome our new veg overlords .

[ MIT Media Lab ]

William Duplessie