University of Vermont: (S)cientists at the University of Vermont, Tufts University, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction—and applied their discovery to create the first-ever, self-replicating living robots.

Joshua Bongard, lead scientist: This is an ideal system in which to study self-replicating systems. We have a moral imperative to understand the conditions under which we can control it, direct it, douse it, exaggerate it.

Moral imperative - just hearing a scientist crapping on about enacting moral imperatives gives me the creeps. If Covid has taught us anything, it's that scientist cannot be allowed anywhere near the steering wheel when it comes to morality.

Bongard: If we can develop technologies, learning from Xenobots, where we can quickly tell the AI: ‘We need a biological tool that does X and Y and suppresses Z,’ —that could be very beneficial.

Yes, very beneficial if you're an unaccountable One-Everything regime - which is the kind the world's leading scientists have been supporting in recent times. Especially the suppressing Z part.

Bongard:We need to create technological solutions that grow at the same rate as the challenges we face.

No we don't. That's the fallacy at the heart of this type of scientist-driven thinking. Our two biggest challenges are Covid and Climate Change - both man-made. We need to stop doing the behaviours that caused them. It's that simple.

I don't blame the scientists for doing this work - but continuing to allow scientists to dictate the moral compass of society is a recipe for the same catastrophic results we've seen from their past efforts. Scientist are good at focusing on trees - in microscopic detail - in an amoral way. But when it comes to seeing the forest, they're hopeless.

They must stand down.

Let the adult thinkers weigh all the consequences, all the ethical/societal implications - then make sensible decisions on the total input.