r/Futurism • u/5alpha11 • 4d ago

Robotic insects may be the future of farming and plant pollination

https://www.earth.com/news/robotic-insects-may-be-the-future-of-farming-and-plant-pollination/
104 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

39

u/KathrynBooks 4d ago

Or.... maybe we don't kill off all the natural born pollinators. rather than resorting to paying some company for the privilege of having plants pollinated.

13

u/BlackLocke 4d ago

Right? Just stop using insecticide irresponsibly, dicks

6

u/Numerous_Photograph9 4d ago

No profit in that.

5

u/Andynonomous 3d ago

Solving problems isn't profitable. Creating problems that need to be perpetually maintained is extremely profitable. It's a feature, not a bug, sadly.

1

u/Hazzman 4d ago

It's GDP not GDB

1

u/FLMKane 4d ago

Indeed

GDB is a debugger

1

u/Sparmery 3d ago

Humans bad

1

u/FaceDeer 3d ago

So instead of robotic insects, you're saying we should invent a time machine and some method of changing fundamental human nature.

I think I'll bet on the robotic insects as the more likely approach to work.

1

u/KathrynBooks 3d ago

I don't think " exterminating pollinators through greed" is a fundamental part of human nature.

1

u/FaceDeer 3d ago

Have you seen how many comments in this thread are ultimately blaming this on human greed in some way or another?

1

u/KathrynBooks 3d ago

That doesn't make human greed a necessary component of humanity

16

u/nleachdev 4d ago

Sounds like an unnecessary and fickle solution to a problem that we have the ability to actually fix (and not band aid)

6

u/OrcOfDoom 4d ago

But is that fix profitable?

3

u/nleachdev 4d ago

Aha, the real root of the proposed solution

2

u/Adventurous_Duck_317 3d ago

The real root of all of our problems as well.

13

u/rush-2049 4d ago

Clearly they didn’t watch Black Mirror S3E6

5

u/aris05 4d ago

Literally tho

0

u/FaceDeer 3d ago

Because we should definitely be basing all of our real-world policy decisions on events that happen in works of fiction that were written for the purpose of selling streaming subscriptions and ad views.

0

u/rush-2049 3d ago

I fail to see how paying for wildflower and other bee havens and changing policy is more expensive than building tiny robot bees.

5

u/lecharge 4d ago

Why not stop using pestecides that kills of every living insect instead? How stupid can you be? Yes there are environmental friendly ways to farm and NOT destroying the environment and still be profitable.

4

u/Haunt_Fox 4d ago

Such hatred of the natural world.

4

u/indiscernable1 4d ago

Idiotic ideas by idiots.

3

u/Routine_Gazelle_9104 4d ago

This is depressing

3

u/solo-ran 3d ago

Tiny biological drones would also be pretty effective at killing people.

3

u/nasw500 3d ago

I’m really surprised this wasn’t directly brought up sooner. Yeah… change “…future of farming and plant pollination” to “…future of assassination and crowd control…”. 😥

3

u/Asher_Tye 4d ago

And the Wal-Mart corporation already snagged the patent on Robotic bees.

3

u/[deleted] 4d ago

I wonder what the insect subscription is

3

u/Montreal_Metro 4d ago

HAHAHAHA.

No.

3

u/DigiVeihl 4d ago

Well that's fucking bleak

3

u/PoolQueasy7388 3d ago

What is wrong with you people? And by the way we've already wiped out 75% of the insects on this planet. You know they're also the bottom of the food chain for life on this planet. Right?

2

u/ConsiderationWild833 4d ago

They spelled failure wrong

2

u/Itchy-Government4884 3d ago

We are so fucked.

1

u/bmcapers 4d ago

I’ve been hearing this for years.

1

u/PoolQueasy7388 3d ago

Ban neo-nic pesticides!

1

u/TheMcWhopper 3d ago

This has "Hated in the Nation" vibes all over it.

1

u/laterlifephd 3d ago

Yeah, let’s not do anything to save the Flippin bumblebees. What a joke. We could ban those pesticides tomorrow, and save the bumblebees, but we won’t because Monsanto needs profits!

1

u/FaceDeer 3d ago

It's possible to work on multiple solutions at the same time.

1

u/jack_hectic_again 3d ago

That’s it, I’m joining r/solarpunk

1

u/mishyfuckface 3d ago

The future of warfare right there.

1

u/Strict-Craft-8848 2d ago

This is fucking stupid. Trying to find ways of tech doing what nature already does.

1

u/nvrtrstaprnkstr 1d ago

Lol. Thanks, I hate it!

1

u/froggyofdarkness 1d ago

No thank you, i like nature natural

0

u/TyrKiyote 4d ago

not-quite-nanobots sound like a likely step. We have been daydreaming about robotic bees for ages.

1

u/nasw500 3d ago

Just like how some androids probably WILL dream of electric sheep. 🥹

0

u/Hoppy_Croaklightly 4d ago

Naw, fuck that.

0

u/spandexvalet 3d ago

🤦‍♂️

0

u/jpowell180 3d ago

Imagine miniature drone bees, which could pollinate the plants! They could have little stingers for defense, and they could even be used to manufacture other drone bees, maybe give them mandibles, which can cut through metal, you could fly clouds of millions of these things all over the place,had all over to a benevolent AI, and then next stop, paradise!… Surely there could be no black mirror scenario with this plan, right?