The single-celled organism Physarum polycephalum is a power-house of raw animal intelligence. Researchers are learning how to program it to carry out simple computations.
If you’ve ever
wondered about the origin of intelligence, take a few moments to study a being
called Physarum polycephalum.
This single-celled organism can find the shortest way through mazes and anticipate
periodic events. Now it is learning how to carry out simple computations.
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Physarum
polycephalum has a complex
lifestyle, but in one phase of its existence it forms a single-celled creature
called a plasmodium that is visible to the naked eye. When this creature
forages for food, it physically surrounds whatever it has settled on for lunch,
secretes a few enzymes, and digests it. If it finds several food sources, it
sends out numerous tubes that form a kind of digestive network. It is this
network that can find its way efficiently through a maze (provided there is
food in the middle).
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Plasmodium is
also remarkably sensitive to light, which it generally avoids. Andrew Adamatzky,
of the University of the West of England, Bristol, in the United Kingdom,
outlines how it is possible to precisely point, steer, and cleave plasmodium
using light and food sources (apparently, they love oat flakes). And since
plasmodia always react in the same way to the same stimulus, Adamatzky says
they are the “ideal substrate for future and emerging biocomputing devices.”
Here’s how it
works. You “program” this biocomputer by creating a kind of obstacle
course for the plasmodium from a pattern of lights and oak flakes. You “run”
the program by allowing the creature to tackle this obstacle course and you
read out the result by examining the shape of the network that the plasmodium
forms. Adamatzky has not yet reported the results of any computations, only the
techniques that could be used to carry one out.
While not all may
have the patience (or a sufficient quantity of oat flakes) for this kind of
programming, plasmodium computing is kinda cool, and you can’t help but admire
Adamatzky’s dedication.
Ref:arxiv.org/abs/0908.0850: Steering Plasmodium With Light: Dynamical Programming of Physarum
Machine
