The Worm in the Machine

The dream of a fully-fledged cyborg apocalypse is now one small but tantalising step closer. Researchers in California and the UK have succeeded in digitising the brain of a worm and placing into a robot made of Lego.

Quoted in Gizmodo, researcher Tim Busbice said, “Rather than just random, crazy movements by the robot, it actually responded to its environment in the same manner as a biological worm”.

As of 2012, the lowly nematode also owns the distinction of being the first multicellular organism with a completely mapped genome, but alongside its genetic makeup, it is the successful replication of the worm’s ‘neural wiring diagram’, that allows for the worm-like behaviour by the robot.

At this stage, regular humans are far too complex to digitise, but the worm, also known as Caenorhabditis Elegans, has only 302 neurons and 959 cells, making it a perfect candidate for replication, and possibly, the leadership of the One Nation Party.

The efforts to recreate C. Elegans, as it is known in its shortened form, are part of a Kickstarter project called ‘Open Worm’ and soon, we’ll be able to download our very own version of C.E onto our desktop.

The virtual C.E will be called ‘Wormsim’, and will perform all the functions of a worm, like, slithering. Feeding compost into your computer is not recommended.