Artificial reproduction

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Artificial reproduction is the re-creation of life brought about by means other than natural ones. It is new life built by human plans and projects. Examples include artificial selection, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, artificial womb, artificial cloning, and kinematic replication.

Contents

Artificial reproduction is one aspect of artificial life. Artificial reproduction can be categorized into one of two classes according to its capacity to be self-sufficient: non-assisted reproductive technology and assisted reproductive technology.

Cutting plants' stems and placing them in compost is a form of assisted artificial reproduction, xenobots are an example of a more autonomous type of reproduction, while the artificial womb presented in the movie the Matrix illustrates a non assisted hypothetical technology. The idea of artificial reproduction has led to various technologies.

Theology

Humans have aspired to create life since immemorial times. Most theologies and religions have conceived this possibility as exclusive of deities. Christian religions consider the possibility of artificial reproduction, in most cases, as heretical and sinful.

Philosophy

Although ancient Greek philosophy raised the concept that man could imitate the creative capacity of nature, classic Greeks thought that if possible, human beings would reproduce things as nature does, and vice versa, nature would do the things that man does in the same way. Aristotle, for example, wrote that if nature made tables, it would make them just as men do. In other words, Aristotle said that if nature were to create a table, such table will look like a human-made table. Correspondingly, Descartes envisioned the human body, and nature, as a machine. Cartesian philosophy does not stop seeing a perfect mirror between nature and the artificial.

However, Kant revolutionized this old idea by criticizing such naturalism. Kant pedagogically wrote:

"Reason, in order to be taught by nature, must approach nature with its principles in one hand, according to which the agreement among appearances can count as laws, and, in the other hand, the experiment thought out in accord with these principles—in order to be instructed by nature not like a pupil, who has recited to him whatever the teacher wants to say, but like an appointed judge who compels witnesses to answer the questions he puts to them.".

Humans are not instructed by nature but rather use nature as raw material to invent. Humans find alternatives to the natural restrictions imposed by natural laws thus, nature is not necessarily mirrored. In accordance with Kant (and contrary to what Aristotle thought) Karl Marx, Alfred Whitehead, [1] Jaques Derrida and Juan David García Bacca noticed that nature is incapable of reproducing tables; or airplanes, or submarines, or computers. [2] If nature tried to create airplanes, it would produce birds. If nature tried to create submarines, it would get fishes. If nature tried to create computers, brains would grow. And if nature tried to create man, modern man, monkeys will be evolved. According to Whitehead, if we look for something natural in artificial life, in the most elaborate cases, if anything, only atoms remain natural. Juan David Garcia Bacca summarized,

“It will not come out from wood, it will not be born, a galley; from clay, a vessel; from linen, a dress; from iron, a lever,...From natural, artificial. In the artificial, the natural is reduced to a simple raw material, even though it is perfectly specified with natural specification. The artificial is the real, positive, and original negation of the natural: of species, of genus and of essence. Thus, its ontology is superior to natural ontology. And for this very reason Marx did not attach any importance to Darwin, whose evolutionism is confined to the natural order: to changes, at most, from variety to variety, from species to species... natural. For the same reason, nature has no dialectics, even though continuous evolution and selection can occur. The dialectic cannot emerge from the natural, for deeper reasons than, using today's terms, from a bird, an airplane cannot emerge; from fish, a submarine; from ears, a telephone; from eyes, a television; from a brain, a digital computer; from feet, a car; from hands, an engine; from Euclid, Descartes; from Aristotle, Newton; from Plato, Marx.”

According to García Bacca, the major difference between natural causes and artificial causes is that nature does not have plans and projects, while humans design things following plans and projects.

In contrast, other influential authors such as Michael Behe have depicted the concept and promoted the idea of intelligent design, a notion that has aroused several doubts and heated controversies, as it reframe natural causes in accordance with a natural plan. Previous ideas that have also provided a positive 'sense' to natural reproduction, are orthogenesis, syntropy, orgone and morphic resonance, among others. Although, these ideas have been historically marginalized and often called pseudoscience, recently Bio-semioticians are reconsidering some of them under symbolic approaches.

Current metaphysics of science actually recognizes that the artificial ways of reproduction are diverse from nature, i.e., unnatural, anti-natural or supernatural. Because Biosemiotics does not focus on the function of life but on its meaning, it has a better understanding of the artificial than classic biology.

Science

Biology, being the study of cellular life, addresses reproduction in terms of growth and cellular division (i.e., binary fission, mitosis and meiosis); however, the science of artificial reproduction is not restricted by the mirroring of these natural processes.The science of artificial reproduction is actually transcending the natural forms, and natural rules, of reproduction. For example, xenobots have redefined the classical conception of reproduction. Although xenobots are made of eukariotic cells they do not reproduce by mitosis, but rather by kinematic replication. Such constructive replication does not involve growing but rather building.

Assisted reproductive technologies

Assisted reproductive technology (ART)'s purpose is to assist the development of a human embryo, commonly because of medical concerns due to fertility limitations.

Non-assisted reproductive technologies

Non-assisted reproductive technologies (NART) could have medical motivations but are mostly driven by a wider heterotopic ambition. Although, NARTs are initially designed by humans, they are programed to become independent of humans to a relative or absolute extent. James Lovelock proposed that such novelties could overcome humans. [3]

Artificial cloning

Cloning is the cellular reproductive processes where two or more genetically identical organisms are created, either by natural or artificial means. Artificial cloning normally involves editing the genetic code, somatic cell nuclear transfer and 3D bioprinting.

Non-assisted artificial womb

A non-assisted artificial womb or artificial uterus is a device that allow for ectogenesis or extracorporeal pregnancy by growing an embryonic form outside the body of an organism (that would normally carry the embryo to term) without any human assistance. The aspect of non-assistance is the key distinction between the current artificial womb technology (AWT) in modern medical research, which still relies on human assistance. With this non-assisted hypothetical technology, a zygote or stem cells are used to create an embryo that is then incubated and monitored by artificial intelligence (AI) within a chamber composed of biocompatible material. The AI maintains the necessary conditions for the embryo to develop and thrive, proceeding to mimic organic labor and childbirth in order to best help the embryo adjust to the outside world. [4] [5]

Ectogenesis—gestation, depicted in the science fiction movie The Matrix, is a fast approaching reality.[ citation needed ] This type of innovation presupposes that vertebrate wombs are not the only way for bearing humans or other similar forms of life. [6]

Kinematic replication

Self-replication without binary fission, meiosis, mitosis (or any other form of cellular reproduction that involves division and growing) can be achieved. Xenobots are an example of kinematic replication. [7] They are biobots, named after the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). Xenobots are cellular life forms designed by using artificial intelligence to build more of themselves by combining frog cells in a liquid medium. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

The term kinematic replication is usually reserved for biomolecules (e.g. DNA, RNA, prions, etc.) and artificially designed cellular forms (e.g. xenobots).

Machine constructive replication

Machine constructive replication mimics human traditional manufacturing but is entirely self-automated. Such constructive replication is a more general form of kinematic replication, which does not necessarily includes bio-molecular or cellular forms. This technology also includes non-organic forms of life such as robots, cyborgs and artificial intelligence reproduction. [14] Constructive replication, as kinematic replication, does not involve growing. [15] In nature growing is required for cellular reproduction, where a cell grows before it splits in two daughters cells. Examples of cellular division are binary fission, mitosis and meiosis; these natural reproductive processes require growing, however constructive replication does not require growing but rather a non-human subject performing the construction of more of itself by using available raw materials.

In computational terms, constructive replication is understood as a multi-step process which involves self-learning algorithms to assemble machines, [16] and it could involve machines collecting resources. [17] Each machine is created with a neural-network "brain" that can learn and adapt based on information it gathers. That machine's goal is then to manufacture more of itself in the best way it can come up with.

Such automated constructive replication involves the notion of inheritance and learning tasks, as machines create an exact copy of themselves through a blueprint that has been passed on to them. [18] Each machine then learns over time, making modifications to its software and its blueprint for future machines' hardware. It then passes on that modified blueprint to the machines it creates or helps create.

Consciousness amplification

Amplification of an existing consciousness is a hypothetical technology. [19] This idea has inspired several movies, Chappie (film) and Detroit: Become Human.[ citation needed ] The reproduction of AI is currently part of an innovative human project, [20] involving code and the amplification of that code. In other terms, the reproduction could come from information the AI collected across the Internet.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloning</span> Process of producing individual organisms with identical genomes

Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical genomes, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction; this reproduction of an organism by itself without a mate is known as parthenogenesis. In the field of biotechnology, cloning is the process of creating cloned organisms of cells and of DNA fragments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamete</span> Haploid sex cell

A gamete is a haploid cell that fuses with another haploid cell during fertilization in organisms that reproduce sexually. Gametes are an organism's reproductive cells, also referred to as sex cells. The name gamete was introduced by the German cytologist Eduard Strasburger in 1878.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reproduction</span> Biological process by which new organisms are generated from one or more parent organisms

Reproduction is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. There are two forms of reproduction: asexual and sexual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-replication</span> Type of behavior of a dynamical system

Self-replication is any behavior of a dynamical system that yields construction of an identical or similar copy of itself. Biological cells, given suitable environments, reproduce by cell division. During cell division, DNA is replicated and can be transmitted to offspring during reproduction. Biological viruses can replicate, but only by commandeering the reproductive machinery of cells through a process of infection. Harmful prion proteins can replicate by converting normal proteins into rogue forms. Computer viruses reproduce using the hardware and software already present on computers. Self-replication in robotics has been an area of research and a subject of interest in science fiction. Any self-replicating mechanism which does not make a perfect copy (mutation) will experience genetic variation and will create variants of itself. These variants will be subject to natural selection, since some will be better at surviving in their current environment than others and will out-breed them.

Reproductive technology encompasses all current and anticipated uses of technology in human and animal reproduction, including assisted reproductive technology (ART), contraception and others. It is also termed Assisted Reproductive Technology, where it entails an array of appliances and procedures that enable the realization of safe, improved and healthier reproduction. While this is not true of all people, for an array of married couples, the ability to have children is vital. But through the technology, infertile couples have been provided with options that would allow them to conceive children.

In cellular biology, a somatic cell, or vegetal cell, is any biological cell forming the body of a multicellular organism other than a gamete, germ cell, gametocyte or undifferentiated stem cell. Somatic cells compose the body of an organism and divide through mitosis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cell growth</span> Increase of the total mass of the cancer cells

Cell growth refers to an increase in the total mass of a cell, including both cytoplasmic, nuclear and organelle volume. Cell growth occurs when the overall rate of cellular biosynthesis is greater than the overall rate of cellular degradation.

Ectogenesis is the growth of an organism in an artificial environment, outside the body in which it would normally be found, such as the growth of an embryo or fetus outside the mother's body, or the growth of bacteria outside the body of a host. The term was coined by British scientist J. B. S. Haldane in 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assisted reproductive technology</span> Methods to achieve pregnancy by artificial or partially artificial means

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) includes medical procedures used primarily to address infertility. This subject involves procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), cryopreservation of gametes or embryos, and/or the use of fertility medication. When used to address infertility, ART may also be referred to as fertility treatment. ART mainly belongs to the field of reproductive endocrinology and infertility. Some forms of ART may be used with regard to fertile couples for genetic purpose. ART may also be used in surrogacy arrangements, although not all surrogacy arrangements involve ART. The existence of sterility will not always require ART to be the first option to consider, as there are occasions when its cause is a mild disorder that can be solved with more conventional treatments or with behaviors based on promoting health and reproductive habits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artificial womb</span> Device that would allow for extracorporeal pregnancy

An artificial womb or artificial uterus is a device that would allow for extracorporeal pregnancy, by growing a fetus outside the body of an organism that would normally carry the fetus to term. An artificial uterus, as a replacement organ, would have many applications. It could be used to assist male or female couples in the development of a fetus. This can potentially be performed as a switch from a natural uterus to an artificial uterus, thereby moving the threshold of fetal viability to a much earlier stage of pregnancy. In this sense, it can be regarded as a neonatal incubator with very extended functions. It could also be used for the initiation of fetal development. An artificial uterus could also help make fetal surgery procedures at an early stage an option instead of having to postpone them until term of pregnancy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surrogacy</span> Arrangement in which a woman carries and delivers a child for designated parent(s)

Surrogacy is an arrangement, often supported by a legal agreement, whereby a woman agrees to childbirth on behalf of another person(s) who will become the child's parent(s) after birth. People pursue surrogacy for a variety of reasons such as infertility, dangers or undesirable factors of pregnancy, or when pregnancy is a medical impossibility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-replicating machine</span> Device able to make copies of itself

A self-replicating machine is a type of autonomous robot that is capable of reproducing itself autonomously using raw materials found in the environment, thus exhibiting self-replication in a way analogous to that found in nature. The concept of self-replicating machines has been advanced and examined by Homer Jacobson, Edward F. Moore, Freeman Dyson, John von Neumann, Konrad Zuse and in more recent times by K. Eric Drexler in his book on nanotechnology, Engines of Creation and by Robert Freitas and Ralph Merkle in their review Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines which provided the first comprehensive analysis of the entire replicator design space. The future development of such technology is an integral part of several plans involving the mining of moons and asteroid belts for ore and other materials, the creation of lunar factories, and even the construction of solar power satellites in space. The von Neumann probe is one theoretical example of such a machine. Von Neumann also worked on what he called the universal constructor, a self-replicating machine that would be able to evolve and which he formalized in a cellular automata environment. Notably, Von Neumann's Self-Reproducing Automata scheme posited that open-ended evolution requires inherited information to be copied and passed to offspring separately from the self-replicating machine, an insight that preceded the discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule by Watson and Crick and how it is separately translated and replicated in the cell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embryo space colonization</span> To create human embryos in space

Embryo space colonization is a theoretical interstellar space colonization concept that involves sending a robotic mission to a habitable terrestrial planet, dwarf planet, minor planet or natural satellite transporting frozen early-stage human embryos or the technological or biological means to create human embryos. The proposal circumvents the most severe technological problems of other mainstream interstellar colonization concepts. In contrast to the sleeper ship proposal, it does not require the more technically challenging 'freezing' of fully developed humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human fertilization</span> Union of a human egg and sperm

Human fertilization is the union of an egg and sperm, occurring primarily in the ampulla of the fallopian tube. The result of this union leads to the production of a fertilized egg called a zygote, initiating embryonic development. Scientists discovered the dynamics of human fertilization in the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human reproduction</span> Procreative biological processes of humanity

Human reproduction is sexual reproduction that results in human fertilization to produce a human offspring. It typically involves sexual intercourse between a sexually mature human male and female. During sexual intercourse, the interaction between the male and female reproductive systems results in fertilization of the ovum by the sperm to form a zygote. While normal cells contain 46 chromosomes, gamete cells only contain 23 single chromosomes, and it is when these two cells merge into one zygote cell that genetic recombination occurs and the new zygote contains 23 chromosomes from each parent, giving it 46 chromosomes. The zygote then undergoes a defined development process that is known as human embryogenesis, and this starts the typical 9-month gestation period that is followed by childbirth. The fertilization of the ovum may be achieved by artificial insemination methods, which do not involve sexual intercourse. Assisted reproductive technology also exists.

Plant reproduction is the production of new offspring in plants, which can be accomplished by sexual or asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction produces offspring by the fusion of gametes, resulting in offspring genetically different from either parent. Asexual reproduction produces new individuals without the fusion of gametes, resulting in clonal plants that are genetically identical to the parent plant and each other, unless mutations occur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual reproduction</span> Biological process

Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that involves a complex life cycle in which a gamete with a single set of chromosomes combines with another gamete to produce a zygote that develops into an organism composed of cells with two sets of chromosomes (diploid). This is typical in animals, though the number of chromosome sets and how that number changes in sexual reproduction varies, especially among plants, fungi, and other eukaryotes.

Interspecific pregnancy is the pregnancy involving an embryo or fetus belonging to another species than the carrier. Strictly, it excludes the situation where the fetus is a hybrid of the carrier and another species, thereby excluding the possibility that the carrier is the biological mother of the offspring. Strictly, interspecific pregnancy is also distinguished from endoparasitism, where parasite offspring grow inside the organism of another species, not necessarily in the womb.

Religious response to assisted reproductive technology deals with the new challenges for traditional social and religious communities raised by modern assisted reproductive technology. Because many religious communities have strong opinions and religious legislation regarding marriage, sex and reproduction, modern fertility technology has forced religions to respond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xenobot</span> Artificial organism

Xenobots, named after the African clawed frog, are synthetic lifeforms that are designed by computers to perform some desired function and built by combining together different biological tissues. There is debate among scientists whether xenobots are robots, organisms, or something else entirely.

References

  1. ↑ Whitehead, Alfred North (1920). The Concept of Nature: Tarner Lectures. Cambridge University Press. hdl:2027/mdp.39015064552642. ISBN   978-0-521-09245-6. OCLC   594170895.[ page needed ]
  2. ↑ Bacca, Juan David García (1963). Metafísica natural estabilizada y problemática metafísica espontánea[Stabilized natural metaphysics and problematic spontaneous metaphysics] (in Spanish). Fondo de Cultura Económica. OCLC   948496309.[ page needed ]
  3. ↑ Clarke, Bruce (2021). "Lynn Margulis, Autopoietic Gaia, and the Novacene: James Lovelock, Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence (2019)". Schlüsselwerke der Systemtheorie. pp. 269–276. doi:10.1007/978-3-658-33415-4_22. ISBN   978-3-658-33414-7.
  4. ↑ Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (May 2020). "Artificial womb technology and clinical translation: Innovative treatment or medical research?". Bioethics. 34 (4): 392–402. doi:10.1111/bioe.12701. PMC   7216961 . PMID   31782820.
  5. ↑ Bulletti, Carlo; Palagiano, Antonio; Pace, Caterina; Cerni, Angelica; Borini, Andrea; de Ziegler, Dominique (March 2011). "The artificial womb". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1221 (1): 124–128. Bibcode:2011NYASA1221..124B. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.05999.x. PMID   21401640.
  6. ↑ Murphy, Julien S. (1989). "Is Pregnancy Necessary? Feminist Concerns About Ectogenesis". Hypatia. 4 (3): 66–84. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.1989.tb00592.x.
  7. ↑ Kriegman, Sam; Blackiston, Douglas; Levin, Michael; Bongard, Josh (7 December 2021). "Kinematic self-replication in reconfigurable organisms". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (49). Bibcode:2021PNAS..11812672K. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2112672118 . PMC   8670470 . PMID   34845026.
  8. ↑ Simon, Matt (13 January 2020). "Meet Xenobot, an Eerie New Kind of Programmable Organism". Wired.
  9. ↑ Kriegman, Sam; Blackiston, Douglas; Levin, Michael; Bongard, Josh (13 January 2020). "A scalable pipeline for designing reconfigurable organisms". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117 (4): 1853–1859. Bibcode:2020PNAS..117.1853K. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1910837117 . PMC   6994979 . PMID   31932426.
  10. ↑ Sokol, Joshua (3 April 2020). "Meet the Xenobots, Virtual Creatures Brought to Life (Published 2020)". The New York Times.
  11. ↑ Sample, Ian (13 January 2020). "Scientists use stem cells from frogs to build first living robots". The Guardian.
  12. ↑ Yeung, Jessie (14 January 2020). "Scientists have built the world's first living, self-healing robots". CNN.
  13. ↑ "A research team builds robots from living cells". The Economist. 16 January 2020.
  14. ↑ Heaven, Will Douglas (27 May 2021). "AI is learning how to create itself". MIT Technology Review.
  15. ↑ Bongard, Joshua; Levin, Michael (8 March 2023). "There's Plenty of Room Right Here: Biological Systems as Evolved, Overloaded, Multi-Scale Machines". Biomimetics. 8 (1): 110. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics8010110 . PMID   36975340.
  16. ↑ Wang, Shuying; Fu, Jinyang; Zhang, Cong; Yang, Junsheng (2021). "Shield machine selection". Shield Tunnel Engineering. pp. 115–171. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-823992-6.00004-7. ISBN   978-0-12-823992-6.
  17. ↑ "NASA's Perseverance Rover Shows Off Collection of Mars Samples" (Press release). NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 14 February 2023.
  18. ↑ Steele, Bill (25 May 2005). "Researchers build a robot that can reproduce". Cornell Chronicle.
  19. ↑ Hildt, Elisabeth (2 July 2019). "Artificial Intelligence: Does Consciousness Matter?". Frontiers in Psychology. 10: 1535. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01535 . PMC   6614488 . PMID   31312167.
  20. ↑ Dhou, Khaldoon; Cruzen, Christopher (December 2019). "An Innovative Chain Coding Technique for Compression Based on the Concept of Biological Reproduction: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach". IEEE Internet of Things Journal. 6 (6): 9308–9315. doi:10.1109/JIOT.2019.2912984.
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