Astro Hacker News - Underwater suit-wearing cyborg insect capable of diving and terra-aqua travel

PowerElectronix |next [-]

From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh...

Seriously, this playing with living organisms to augment their capabilities and make them do our bidding is a bit beyond my personal moral threshold. At this point isn't easier to miniaturize a robot cocroach?

f6v |root |parent |next [-]

It's much easier to plug into something perfected by millions of years of selective pressure.

npmaker |root |parent [-]

It really depends on a person's moral qualms and how deeply they are felt.

For instance, different people put different amounts of effort in when a rogue house fly enters a room. Some kill, some catch and release.

Which is easier? It really depends on the person and what they are willing to tolerate.

lukan |root |parent [-]

Most flies I kill, butterflies and wasps I usually guide out. But catching a insect and injecting electronic into it to force it to move where it does not want is kind of a very different thing to me.

lmf4lol |root |parent [-]

What is , in your moral judgement, the difference between a fly and butterlies and wasps? why kill one but guide out the other?

igleria |root |parent |next |previous [-]

I can picture an alien picking me up and making horrible experiments on my body alright, so I understand your worry...

engineer_22 |root |parent |next |previous [-]

Very interesting research but can’t help but /feel/ this is abominable

tryagainian |root |parent |previous [-]

No more beer, wine, bread, or yogurt for you.

No mushrooms, no meat, and no vegetables.

silver_silver |root |parent [-]

This argument is called reductio ad absurdum. It’s often used by people like you who want to prevent others from trying to be better.

sarchertech |root |parent |next [-]

> playing with living organisms to augment their capabilities and make them do our bidding

I think the OP was just highlighting that we do this all the time.

I personally feel like cyborg control goes a step beyond selective breeding and it makes me feel icky too. But we need to talk about what the difference is.

card_zero |root |parent |previous [-]

What on earth do you mean? That's a basic form of argument, where you demonstrate that the logic of a proposition leads somewhere ridiculous, or leads to a contradiction.

It reminds me of somebody I knew who thought that metaphors are dishonest and should never be used.

alentred |next |previous [-]

It is fun to imagine paleontologists, some millions of years from now, whatever species they will be themselves, finding a fossil of this cockroach and trying to explain it. One thing are humans having hip joint implants, but "why on Earth would they make a diving suite for a cockroach?!"

proee |root |parent |next [-]

Millions of years from now EVERYTHING will be some form of cyborg. So these cockroaches might be THE missing link of when computer and living species first started to merge.

BirAdam |root |parent |previous [-]

They’d clearly decide that the cockroach was worshipped.

ch4s3 |root |parent [-]

I dunno, probably had religious significance.

jdw64 |next |previous [-]

Looking at the severed parts, it doesn't seem like they'll live long. I wonder how long they'd survive after something like that.

It looks like something out of CockroachPunk 2077

financetechbro |root |parent |next [-]

Seems like the oxygen shell itself was just attached to the cockroach with adhesive, they were able to take it off afterwards.

> After experiments, the shell can be removed and the membrane can be gently polished off to minimise any restrictions on the cockroach’s normal behaviour and daily activities. Four small dorsal openings were reserved for attaching the oxygen tubes, which were connected to the thoracic spiracles.

matheusmoreira |root |parent |next |previous [-]

Roach Ex. My exoskeleton is augmented.

AlbinoDrought |root |parent [-]

Up in Canada, we had RoboRoach: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboRoach

coolness |root |parent |next |previous [-]

The title says "hours-long diving" so at least a few hours i guess...

doublerabbit |root |parent |previous [-]

I am unsure they really care how long it lasts especially when you create something like this.

As long it carries out it mission for a minute of two. Send it to some underwater fibre optic cable and use it as a depth charge to blow it up.

No more requirements for anchors.

frotaur |root |parent [-]

Not sure the cockroach cyborg will survive such pressures, already surprised it can survive the few feet of water.

pvaldes |next |previous [-]

Just what we need at this moment, the viruses and bacteria of hissing cockroaches entering into our valuable water sources so we can drink it, and maybe experience aquatic-park-fun mode in our intestines. Or even discover (who knows? microbiologists can dream) a new exciting pandemic, when two ecosystems that never evolved to be together meet each other? Imagine those giant marine viruses, now on our cricket bars and mosquitoes.

notahan |next |previous [-]

Oh god, you can imagine how governments are going to look at this and freak out about espionage. Or worse, use this tech for espionage!!

abrugsch |root |parent |next [-]

Reminds me of the scene in The Fifth Element where Tricky is piloting a spy cockroach with a hilariously huge transmitter on it's back... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJxMpTeEf8Q

marcosdumay |root |parent |next |previous [-]

It makes for a good psychologic weapon, like the exploding mice from the 2nd World War...

Except that this time you can check if it's working and optimize it better by listening to people's phones and seeing how they react.

trhway |root |parent |next |previous [-]

If you knew Russian you could enjoy the hysterics their propaganda were stoking in 2022-23 about alleged "combat mosquitos" the Ukrainians had developed. According to the propaganda the mosquitos were specifically able to target Russians based on DNA (interesting that according to the same propaganda Russians and Ukrainians are the same people - how poor mosquitos were supposed to distinguish between Russians and Ukrainians the propaganda didn't specify though)

macintux |root |parent [-]

I can't believe Russia even took that to the UN. Insane.

https://global.espreso.tv/mosquitoes-vs-moscowitoes-reznikov...

fractallyte |root |parent [-]

This is a studied and documented propaganda tactic: flood the information space with conflicting accounts, in order to muddy the issue.

This statement summarizes it nicely:

"The purpose of propaganda is not to make you believe something. It is to make you believe nothing.

Then you will do nothing."

https://x.com/DarthPutinKGB/status/1909932857948004738

JonathanRaines |root |parent |previous [-]

I hope they don't start bugging our homes.

encrypted_bird |root |parent [-]

You joke, but...

sir_eliah |next |previous [-]

Every day we're getting closer to the tech-world in the "Starfish" from Peter Watts.

andrewflnr |root |parent [-]

I think about Starfish's dead internet a lot now. Watts was really uncomfortably prescient.

tda |next |previous [-]

> ... oxygen generation mechanism of diving suit for cyborg cockroaches

An actual quote from a Nature article

CompoundEyes |next |previous [-]

A related article and the language used to describe the creature matches

> Madagascar hissing cockroach has been used in various applications as a powerful platform

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60779-1

swader999 |next |previous [-]

This is the kind of Science I'd expect a 12 year old boy to come up with given unlimited funding.

txoria |next |previous [-]

The authors of the article deserve to get appropriate controllers inserted right up into their assholes, so they enjoy the operational range it gives to their fucking selves.

UomoNeroNero |root |parent [-]

yes, really.....

alex_duf |next |previous [-]

Just because you can doesn't mean you should

encrypted_bird |root |parent [-]

Exactly.

THE COCKROACHES CAN ALREADY SURVIVE NUCLEAR WAR.

WHY DO THEY INSIST ON MAKING THEM _STRONGER_?!

gregoryyy |next |previous [-]

Bill Gates at it again!!! Damn you Bill Gates, damn yoooooouuu...!

slipperybeluga |next |previous [-]

[dead]

ABNi |previous [-]

A perfect 10 post. No notes.