Sooner or later, all tech roads lead to Skynet, Judgement Day, and the Terminator. James Cameron’s film series outlines the very worst-case scenario for technology. Plus, you know, organic time-travelling robots are really cool.

So any time anyone does something even vaguely related, all signs point to the doom of humanity. South Africa has its own Skynet (it delivers packages). It’s also an AI. But there’s something even creepier. Scientists have managed to grow human cells on a robotic frame. You can’t tell us that’s not the first step towards the ArnieBot 3000.

Robot in disguise

Yes, scientists from the University of Oxford have actually grown cells on a moving robotic skeleton. Which looks a fair amount like a shoulder joint, in fact. The point of the project wasn’t to freak anyone out, or to facilitate time travel for Austrian death machines. In fact, there isn’t really a point right now, beyond being able to do it. It’s possible the innovation, which involves growing cells on a frame that ‘exercises’ them as they grow, will allow for some interesting grafts and replacements. Imagine being able to grow replacement tendons, for example.

But right now, all that’s known about the operation is that it’s possible. They might turn out to be super useful. They might turn out to be mostly useless. You know, a bit like reality TV or Twitter. Something to do to while away the hours but with no application that matters in the real world.

Project lead Pierre-Alexis Mouthuy expressed optimism about the potential for robot-assisted cellular growth, but said that “We need to do much more work to understand what’s really going on.”

Source: Communications Engineering via The Verge