Biohybrids through Organism-Technology-Interactions

The rise of autonomous robotics, machine learning and A.I., and automated model building technology become game-changer technologies in ethology, behavioral psychology and sociology, especially if these techniques are combined. The fact that there are more and more cheap, electrically efficient and miniaturized electronics on the market allows to scale such systems enormously, allowing on the one hand applications of bio-hybrid systems "in the wild" and on the other hand setups based on 24/7 long-term monitoring and behavioral modulation of organisms in the lab. These changes have the potential to be the onset of a new area in ethology, where a paradigm shift from hypothesis-driven experimental setups is seemingly made towards rather data-driven scientific approaches, as they are already the state of the art in other fields of biology, like molecular biology, systems biology and the *-omics (transcriptomics, proteomics, connectomics, ...). Here we want to bring together the leading researchers in this novel emerging field of science, who conduct cutting-edge research in the field of organism-technology interaction, thus who successfully intersect humans, animals, plants, fungi or bacteria with autonomous digital technologies, ranging from sensor/actuator networks to swarms of autonomous, often bio-inspired and/or bio-mimetic, robots. The goal is to reflect on how these new technologies can shape research in the life sciences, combining scientific and technological contributions with the perspective of contemporary philosophy of science and epistemology.