This is a watershed moment for science, not just a takeoff point.

The release of the Concorde marks a new peak for planes, as their unmatched speed will affect the aviation world forever, connecting the world’s furthest cities faster than it takes to reach the countryside. The only question is: how fast will this close the gap between different cultures? It is also a landmark in the theoretical field of artificial birdness, which might seem irrelevant to general users, but is the beginning of a technological revolution.

It is important to recall how the architecture of the planes mimics one-to-one the main features of a bird. These features include:

• a head, including a decision-taking device and flight planning controls, scientifically called a ‘brain’
• a pair of wings, the primary means of becoming airborne using aero-physics, relying on portance
• a load-carrying body
• a fuel reserve, with a refilling mechanism
• a tail, acting as a stabilizer

Birdlike machines have been proven to work by the Wright brothers, using conceptual designs that were centuries-old, with precursors such as Leonardo Da Vinci. Since the introduction of these machines, the science and technology of birdness studies made leaps and bounds.

Here are some of the points where super-bird abilities have been achieved:

• load-carrying capacity: the Antonov An-225 Mriya can transport 640,000 kg, while the harpy eagle can barely manage 18 kg,
• speed: the Concorde achieves 2,179 km/h, whereas the peregrine falcon has been recorded at 322 km/h, which is not even a railway speed record.

These essential metrics are the heartbeat of aviation. Despite this, many critics argue that Artificial General Birdness remains an illusory goal.

To wit, there are 2 main metrics where natural birds still exceed the best results of artificial birds. These are:

• endurance: the common swift can stay airborne for up to 10 months, far exceeding the longest recorded flight of a plane, which is under 65 days,
• energy efficiency: birds such as condors rely on thermal currents and gliding to sustain flight with minimal effort, while airplanes must constantly burn fuel to maintain speed and altitude. On average, birds use about 1kJ/kg/km, while planes use 125 kJ/kg/km, a significant but brigeable gap.

The endurance is actually a consequence of the energy efficiency of natural birds, so that leaves only one real area of improvement. However, the science of birdlike devices is only nascent, less than a century old, while evolution had millions of years to refine its design. Evolution also worked with much easier constraints; the speed and load-carrying capacity of natural birds make them unfit for almost all practical applications. The problem is much more general (and difficult!) as to not be useless. So while a lot of progress can be done, it is almost certain that big gains remain on the table and will be achieved with more scientific progress.

For the sake of completeness, it is important to note that some rogue scientists, probably affected by the Nobel disease, contend that there are more important differences separating birds from artificial birds. These excentric ideas include reproduction abilities, chemical properties, or interaction with their environment. This is stating the obvious, as artificial birds are abstract models which purposefully leave out irrelevant details.

Even if we were to accept such aberrant arguments, would we be served better by planes that hunt for insects between flights? Or that chirp when taking off or when winds are too strong? (this might make it fun for awhile, but it would get old pretty quickly).

It would be useless to spend more time on such triffle, and recognize that scientific arguments rely on measurable data. The human argument on whether general birdness has already been achieved or not will be entirely irrelevant once the last metrics are surpassed by science. The effort should thus concentrate on funding research to improve these benchmarks.

In the end, those are simply unproductive complaints from what are either Luddites or people who try to delude themselves in denying the achievements of artificial birdness. We should treat them with empathy yet ignore their noise. Future marches forward!