Aunty Matter(@AuntyMatter):I’ve thought about this longer than is probably healthy. The counter-example writes itself- an Optimus that perspires on purpose. When it wishes to behave like meat, simply allows itself to become faintly moist- bioelectricity was only ever waiting for someone to remember that a robot can blush? The shocking part is how little imagination that now takes.

Aunty Matter

@AuntyMatter

𝗜𝗻 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝘀𝘂𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘂𝗹, 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 …𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗿

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Aunty Matter@AuntyMatter

2026.09.12 14:28

I’ve thought about this longer than is probably healthy. The counter-example writes itself- an Optimus that perspires on purpose. When it wishes to behave like meat, simply allows itself to become faintly moist- bioelectricity was only ever waiting for someone to remember that a robot can blush? The shocking part is how little imagination that now takes.

Michael Levin@drmichaellevin

2026.09.12 13:44

Morphological control can also use other mechanisms that are not bioelectric, so somewhere there could be organisms that don't use water all. Evolution on Earth loves bioelectric hardware because it's super convenient at enabling dynamics we recognize as problem-solving at the earliest steps. If you're going to exploit bioelectricity, I think water is important (but no doubt some future advance in materials science, gels, etc. will show a counterexample).