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Semibiotic Persistence

Semibiotic Persistence
Semibiotic Persistence
From observation, we find four different strategies to successfully enable structures to persist over extended periods of time. If functionally relevant features are very large compared to the changes that can be effectuated by entropy, the functional structure itself has a high enough probability to erode only slowly over time. If the functionally relevant features are protected from environmental influence by sacrificial layers that absorb the impinging of the environment,deterioration can be avoided or slowed. Loss of functionality can be delayed, even for complex systems, by keeping alternate options for all required components available. Biological systems also apply information processing to actively counter the impact of entropy. The latter strategy increases the overall persistence of living systems and enables them to maintain a highly complex functional organisation during their lifetime and over generations. In contrast to the other strategies, information processing has only low material overhead. While at present engineered technology is far from achieving the self-repair of evolved systems, the semibiotic combination of biological components with conventionally engineered systems may open a path to long-term persistence of functional devices in harsh environments. We review nature’s strategies for persistence, and consider early steps taken in the laboratory to import such capabilities into engineered architectures.
314-321
Prothmann, C.
73091e64-dfa6-46ea-8b36-a65718427363
Zauner, K.-P.
c8b22dbd-10e6-43d8-813b-0766f985cc97
Prothmann, C.
73091e64-dfa6-46ea-8b36-a65718427363
Zauner, K.-P.
c8b22dbd-10e6-43d8-813b-0766f985cc97

Prothmann, C. and Zauner, K.-P. (2014) Semibiotic Persistence. [in special issue: Space Architecture] Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 67 (7-9), 314-321.

Record type: Article

Abstract

From observation, we find four different strategies to successfully enable structures to persist over extended periods of time. If functionally relevant features are very large compared to the changes that can be effectuated by entropy, the functional structure itself has a high enough probability to erode only slowly over time. If the functionally relevant features are protected from environmental influence by sacrificial layers that absorb the impinging of the environment,deterioration can be avoided or slowed. Loss of functionality can be delayed, even for complex systems, by keeping alternate options for all required components available. Biological systems also apply information processing to actively counter the impact of entropy. The latter strategy increases the overall persistence of living systems and enables them to maintain a highly complex functional organisation during their lifetime and over generations. In contrast to the other strategies, information processing has only low material overhead. While at present engineered technology is far from achieving the self-repair of evolved systems, the semibiotic combination of biological components with conventionally engineered systems may open a path to long-term persistence of functional devices in harsh environments. We review nature’s strategies for persistence, and consider early steps taken in the laboratory to import such capabilities into engineered architectures.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 10 November 2014
Published date: 2014
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 377358
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/377358
PURE UUID: 8e44d087-4a44-46cb-854b-8d3ce8c62c9c

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Date deposited: 21 May 2015 17:47
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 20:02

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Contributors

Author: C. Prothmann
Author: K.-P. Zauner

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