
Biomimicry: How Designers Are Learning from the Natural World - yuvals
https://99percentinvisible.org/article/biomimicry-designers-learning-natural-world/
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binarytransform
Yeah nature got us here, but "here" is a local optimum based on evolutionary
selection forces. If you were to design things based on biomimicry rather than
first principles, planes would flap their wings, cars would gallop, and
computer vision sensors would only perceive visible light. These people are
building solutions rather than solving the problem.

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codingdave
You are assuming that designers would be overly simplistic about their work.
Planes don't use their wings for propulsion, so why would a designer try to
make them flap? That action isn't solving the same problem, and any engineer
would know that. Likewise, tires roll in response to propulsion, whereas
galloping legs are providing power. Frankly, the pistons inside an engine ARE
closer to a gallop than to a roll. (Well, maybe not in a Wankel rotary engine,
but...)

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robotresearcher
Leonardo da Vinci, notable designer, and many other sophisticated people
considered flapping wing aircraft. It’s easy to dismiss it as simplistic
hundreds of years later once practical solutions already exist.

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nether
No, flapping wing aircraft simply are less efficent for size scales that can
carry a person. That's why the larger a bird's wingspan, the less frequently
they flap, such that condors, storks etc. are basically fixed wing gliders.

We in the artificial world do have our own local optima with quad copter
drones. Flapping here would be more efficient. Consider seagulls that dive and
change direction instantly, and can respond to gusts without missing a beat.
We have nothing approaching that maneuverability. This is an active area of
research.

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robotresearcher
What do you mean 'no'? It's an empirical fact that very talented designers
considered flapping wing flying machines, before they had the information that
we have now. They were not 'overly simplistic' except in deep hindsight.

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laretluval
We aren't done designing flying machines. Maybe it will turn out that when we
have sophisticated enough control mechanisms and materials, flapping will turn
out to be the way to go after all.

Of course natural evolution has found only local minima in the fitness
landscape, but as a designer it's been running its algorithm a lot longer than
humans have. Its local minima may well be better than ours, and so worth
trying to imitate.

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robotresearcher
Refer to the grandparent post as to why large flapping machines are unlikely.

This thread is so weird.

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mirekrusin
"...and a nose of a kingfisher" \- except that the kingfisher dives on that
video with open mouth. Something's not right here, what's the point of
modelling closed one for "no splash"/no soundwave. It's also low pressure ->
high pressure in case of the diving bird and high pressure -> low pressure in
case of train leaving a tunnel.

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chrisbennet
I think they enter the water with a closed mouth and then open it to grab the
fish. I see them frequently when I’m kayaking but they are too fast for me to
tell which way their mouths are for sure.

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ggm
Many of these solutions are about energy minimization. Sometimes its the
lifetime energy. Sometimes, its the energy of creation/instantiation. If you
start from a bundle of cells you don't have the option to yank a mecanno box
of new parts into the system ready-made: you have to use cellular generative
methods, to construct largely fluid and jelly filled sacs, which then accrete
things, or form surfaces, and you badly want to minimize the energy cost of
doing that, within the constraints of the physical system you are in.

Whales could be half a mile long and razor. Thin. or globular. They went
somewhere inbetween for reasons.

Thats what I think, anyway. I base this on (mis) readings of D'Arcy Thompson.
1917.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Growth_and_Form](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Growth_and_Form)

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travmatt
An interesting database related to biomimicry:
[https://asknature.org/](https://asknature.org/)

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yogrish
Some more real life Bio inspired things - LED inspired from fireflies nano
structures, Velcro, camera from human eye more at

[https://asknature.org/?s=&p=0&hFR%5Bpost_type_label%5D%5B0%5...](https://asknature.org/?s=&p=0&hFR%5Bpost_type_label%5D%5B0%5D=Inspired%20Ideas)

