This Desktop Insect Server Uses Ethereum To Run Evolutionary Smart Contracts

Animist Systems delivers delicious protein computing power with one quarter the ecologic footprint of “beef”

“So what you’re telling me is…” — I stopped Richard Rider mid-sentence and plucked another mealworm out of the server tray, and popped it into my mouth.

God, these things are delicious.

I knew how Richard could go on and on about technical details and I wanted to be prepared for the deluge.

“So you’re telling me, these things are networked?”

It was my first time in Richard’s private grow facility. Linda was there, doing her daily feeding and maintenance rounds.

“That’s right,” Richard began. I could tell he was putting on his lecture hat.

“It all boils down to…”

“Ethereum,” I tried to cut him off.

“That’s right,” he continued, unhindered. “This entire place runs an iterative series of evolutionary smart contracts using the Standard Protocols. So that as problems are introduced into the grid, the biological imperatives of the pupae will order and re-order their social behavior, until a consensus is ultimately determined by the sensors and response to the query is returned…”

He was talking, of course, about the integrated LED/light sensing panels in each grow tray which took microsecond burst imagery of the position and relationship of all the meal worms in each tray, and then compared that with aggregate data across the sector of the grow facility assigned to the task, and which it then passed against a series of markers derived from proprietary calculations Richard had patented years ago based on the I Ching.

“And they’re delicious too,” I added, popping another one from his demo tray into my mouth.

Richard laughed. “I prefer the BBQ roasted flavor.”

When it came to flavor, I trusted Richard’s instincts. It was him, after all, who had pioneered the unique microflora which Odwalla had turned into their billion dollar Superfood beverage line.

Here we go again, I thought.