Have you ever heard about xenobots? Google around. There are tens of documents (most replicate a common source).
It's a glimpse in the future. A new technology that will pave our road to a better world...or a complete disaster.
As always, technology and knowledge are neutral, but the way we use them makes for a better or worse living for all.
By Joshua Brown, University of Vermont Communications (BURLINGTON, Vermont) – To persist, life must reproduce. Over billions of years, organisms have evolved many ways of replicating, from budding plants to sexual animals to invading viruses. Now scientists at the University of Vermont, Tufts...
Swarms of tiny "xenobots" can self-replicate in the lab by pushing loose cells together – the first time this form of reproduction has been seen in multicellular organisms
It's all been rather over-hyped. See a more rational explanation of what they are written by a 15 year experienced biological researcher turned science journalist.
As always. This announcements are useful to give the broad public a glimpse on what could be a not so close future. Or, at least, on what they're doing in those labs..
Surely most of the research would end in a blind alley, but this is just how our knowledge improves over time.
Combining nanotechnology with AI (or cell manipulation and AI) will lead to "interesting" points. Something we should, at least partially, fear about..
Let's hope for the best.