If Any Fish Is Fooled By This Spying Fish Robot, Then Fish Are Far Dumber Than I Thought: Which Was Pretty Dumb.
SoFi isn't like other fish, but they don't seem to notice.
Pale and plump with a tail that swishes side-to-side, the one-eyed robotic fish was built by scientists at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).
It is designed to swim naturally alongside other fish in open water and spy on them without raising suspicions or disturbing their natural habitat.
The researchers have taken the 18-inch-long faux fish for test swims in Fiji's Rainbow Reef, where it swam for up to 40 minutes in 50 feet of water. A diver directed the robot's movements from up to 32 feet away using a waterproofed Super Nintendo controller.
Full story here.
Fish have a reputation for a lot of things: varying degrees of mercury, gills, being delicious with a lemon basil crust, but being smart is not one of them. Fish are pure herd mentality: one follows another, follows another, follows another, and so on. I’m not saying that there’s not some intricate evolutionary brain-wiring, instinct, and speed at work, but I’m not trusting a fish to book-smart its way out of a tricky situation anytime soon. For the record, that doesn’t go for sharks, which I just assume are the smartest, most cunning animals alive.
Back to fish. If a single fish thinks that this robot imposter is to be trusted, then fish are even dumber than I thought. The bar is set to a whole new low. I’ll admit, the back fin is pretty lifelike, but whatever genius made this completely botched the head. This fish is a 10 from the back and a 3 from the front. Any fish with decent vision and any pride will recognize this thing as a cyborg in a second. What’s with the lack of color? Did these scientists hit a deadline last minute? It’s like they spent years designing the ugliest fish in the world and then forgot to color it in. Come on fish, the back of the thing may move with a little rhythm, but the front of it looks like it was built out of Legos by a drunk four year old. If this is all it takes to trick a fish then I don’t know what’s worth studying about them. I give it ten days before SoFi is stuck in a plastic bag anyway.
