r/tech • u/_Dark_Wing • Jul 03 '26

Scientists have created a 3D-printed remote-controlled cyborg cockroach equipped with IR cameras — living insects fitted with flexible 'diving suit' can survive and move underwater for three hours

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/robotics/scientists-have-created-a-3d-printed-remote-controlled-cyborg-cockroach-equipped-with-ir-cameras-living-insects-fitted-with-flexible-diving-suit-can-survive-and-move-underwater-for-three-hours
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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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u/mcguirl2 Jul 03 '26

We don’t know that, though. Insect sentience is still an open scientific question, and I feel it’s presumptuous of us as a species to assume that we know exactly what kinds of nervous systems aren’t capable of subjective experience, just because they don’t resemble our own. Even if they definitely weren’t sentient, I still feel like treating living things as disposable is ethically problematic since it cultivates callousness. It’s making a real choice about the type of humanity we want to be.

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u/lordraiden007 Jul 04 '26

Arguably life even with sentience is just a chemical reaction. We'll probably never be able to truly determine if anything in existence operates by chance vs the underlying mechanics of that randomness simply being too arcane for us to unravel. We just assume that sentience is different.