BioInspired! So What? Now What!

Thanks to Prof Ludger Jansen for the pointer.

Online-Presentation by Marco Tamborini on Monday, 13. March 2023, 20:00 CET (Berlin Time) 

In this presentation, I explore how bio-hybrid forms can be created and combined when starting out from organic forms. The thesis I advance here is epistemological: the combinatorial practice of bionics, biomimetics, biorobotics, and all design strategies inspired by nature is based not on biomimetic inspiration (i.e., on a kind of imitation of nature) but on a practice of translation. To develop this thesis, I focus on the practices of contemporary biorobotics. I examine the practice of translating natural forms into technical artifacts, as developed by Raoul Heinrich Francé during the early 20th century. I then analyze the making of robots capable of replicating complex systems of locomotion. Finally, I investigate the interaction between robots and living organisms (fish). In the concluding part of the paper, I reflect on the philosophical payoff and broader conditions of possibility for this translational practice. I discuss when and to what extent a translation of biological forms into biotechnical ones is acceptable, and also highlight the conception of form that underlies this practice. I additionally seek to draw attention to the need to philosophically investigate what happens between different domains of knowledge – especially between science and technology. Thus, this ralk invites philosophers to develop a philosophy in the interstices of knowledge production.

Marco Tamborini teaches and researches in the field of philosophy of science, philosophy of technology and history of technology at the Institute of Philosophy of the Technical University of Darmstadt. He is a member of the Junge Akademie der Wissenschaften und Litteratur | Mainz. He was a Pre-Doc at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall College for Advanced Studies University of Cambridge, as well as a Visiting Scholar at the Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa and at the BioRobotics Institute - Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.

His research focuses on the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology, morphology, robotics, bionics, bioinspired architecture, AI and paleontology, and the history and philosophy of technoscience. Recent publications: The Architecture of Evolution: The Science of Form in Twentieth-Century Evolutionary Biology (University of Pittsburgh Press 2023), Entgrenzung: Die Biologisierung der Technik und die Technisierung der Biologie (Meiner Verlag 2022).

Webpage: https://sites.google.com/site/marcotamborinisite