Animate Condensed Matter is a scientific R&D company that focuses on the development of artificial living-like materials. The core of the company is a team of professional physicists and materials scientists. The leader of the group is Dmitry A. Kukuruznyak (PhD in Materials Science from University of Washington, Seattle, USA, 2003).
The artificial animate materials are close relatives and simpler counterparts of living matter. Their material bodies execute voluntary actions and motions, and exactly manipulate their own parts. They sustain an uninterrupted activity without disintegration of the condensed state. These materials are driven by ongoing chemical condensation, i.e. making and reconstructing internal chemical bonds. The accompanying ordered atomic permutations cause collective reconstructions, therefore the whole body moves.
The notion of animate materials could contribute to creating the comprehensive physics of life. We invent corresponding quantifiable models of the animate organisms. We also develop the theory of autonomous behavior, including intelligent behavior. We contend that the artificial animate materials should be used for manufacturing brains for artificial living-like robots.
We appeared on the scene quite recently. The company was founded in September 2017. Our work and our ideas remain poorly known to the general public. However, we gain recognition at an increasing rate.
Our main contentions
Definition of Life
A living organism is an evolving condensed matter body that executes autonomous motions. These motions are caused by active atoms that make new chemical bonds. During the bond making (for approximately 10 nanoseconds), the active atom manipulates its adjoining atoms and arranges its local neighborhood. In a well-ordered condensed body, these motions unite, and create collective reconstructions (i.e. orderly autonomous motions).
Thanks to these motions, the organism orderly manipulates its parts. These reconstructions act on many spatial and temporal scales. On a subcellular scale, these manipulations disassemble chemical precursors, control synthesis of new products, and assemble precise subcellular structures. On the cellular level, the cytoplasmic streaming transfers products and chemical precursors, both within the cell, and between the cell and its habitat. Tanks to that, the cell feeds and gets rid of toxic chemical waste.
An independent organism appears at the cellular level, when the reconstructions get looped into a self-sustaining circulation. These reconstructions join chemical precursors, and produce new active atoms; this causes new mechanical reconstructions.
A living biological cell synthesizes high-molecular-weight products from simple precursors. It builds more chemical bonds than it breaks. I.e. the living cell is a piece of chemical condensate that continues chemical condensation. It keeps building missing chemical bonds in already existing condensed body. From the point of view of physics, a living organism is an evolving condensed matter body driven by the process of chemical condensation.
Living-like Materials
There is a big class of materials driven by the process of chemical condensation. Additionally, an analogous living-like state is observed in condensed matter experiencing surplus of chemical bonds during the process of chemical decondensation (i.e. elimination of excess chemical bonds).
The condensing or decondensing materials could be much simpler that the real biological organisms. However, they could still perform complex autonomous actions. These simpler counterparts of living organisms could be used for manufacturing brains of the living-like robots.
Neural Networks
The notion of animate materials could be very useful for describing neural networks. When the neurons connect via material bonds and exchange electrochemical signals, they create an evolving condensed matter body. The actions of the brain correspond to the reconstructions of this body.
Each neuron is an independent organism with its own individual will. However, the neural condensed body constrains the actions of individual neurons. A neuron can be partially liberated and perform an action only when the condensed body allows him. For that, the condensed body must execute a reconstruction that removes some of the constraints. The individual wills of the neurons become completely subjugated to the collective will of the neural evolving condensed matter body.
A collective action (reconstruction) of the neural condensed matter body proceeds as follows: (1) The body spontaneously makes a certain tear in itself. This removes some of the internal constraints, and the whole body becomes excited. (2) Then the body widens the hole in itself, and partially turns itself out through this hole. It fills it with a new material, and closes the hole. (3) The action stops when this tear is re-stitched with new material bonds. After completion of one action, the neural condensate could make a new rupture, and execute another action.
The collective organism proper (i.e. the mind) appears when this sequence of actions gets looped into a self-sustaining circulation. Our main contention is that the artificial animate materials generate reconstructions is a similar fashion. Therefore, they could be employed for manufacturing artificial brains.