
Slime molds remember, but do they learn? - dbasedweeb
https://www.quantamagazine.org/slime-molds-remember-but-do-they-learn-20180709/
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TaupeRanger
As usual with questions related to mind and cognition, the definitions of the
terms are nebulous to the point of meaninglessness until you explicitly state
the definition you're using.

To say that slime molds "remember" things is to simply define the word
"remember" to include: "chemical changes in biological organisms that persist
over time". Using the word "remember" makes it seem like there's something
more interesting going on, because it evokes our anthropocentric notions of
vivid recollection and high level cognition.

As Djikstra stated decades ago, all of these nebulous questions are
meaningless until you make them explicit. "The question of whether machines
can think is about as relevant as the question of whether submarines can
swim."

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perl4ever
If memory in humans is _not_ covered by "chemical changes in biological
organisms that persist over time" then what could it be?

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TaupeRanger
It is. I think you misunderstood. I was simply pointing out that defining
"remember" to include that extremely broad definition basically makes the term
meaningless because it includes all kinds of biological processes that we
would never associate with memory under other circumstances. But when we want
to talk about slime mold "cognition", science journalists start using loaded
terms to pique interest in otherwise mundane behaviors.

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sethrin
I had wondered the other day whether animal intelligence was either associated
with or predicated on memory abilities. This paper[0] seemed at first blush to
support that notion. Am I interpreting that correctly? Is there other
supporting evidence? What are the problems with this idea?

[0]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2784289/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2784289/)

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ryanmercer
If they do, countless hours of playing Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior on the
NES has left me quite adept at dispatching slime wholesale.

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overcast
Watch the speedrun of Dragon Warrior, it's mental how much that dude has to
remember and time properly based on sound cues.

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ComputerGuru
I’m surprised there was no mention of experiments that involved reproduction.
I’d be interested in how a single cell of slime mold spilt from th organism
and left to reproduce for some time would fare.

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Isamu
In NetHack they are yummy!

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trav4225
That's always my first thought when I read anything about slime molds!

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cevn
I renamed mine to mangoes since they are my favorite fruit.

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BenjiWiebe
I'm boring. Mine are always apples.

