
Fungi Basidiomycetes can be used as computing devices - dfischer
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsfs.2018.0029
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blueadept111
What is this article saying? That mushrooms might naturally compute, because
they transmit signals between each other in response to environmental stimuli,
or that mushrooms have properties that can be hijacked and used to build a
logical device that computes? Or both?

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odomojuli
The article seems to imply both. The basis is that wave propagate signals
throughout the fungal network. The signals are made of electricity, which acts
in a manner where they assume it represents numbers such as 1. Then they
define logic. This is to me a pretty safe assumption if the most we have to
deal with is a two-state automata that takes in 0 or 1. We can observe from
its natural behavior and physical shape from experiments that there's clearly
some mathematical optimization going on for well-known computer science
problems that define its characteristics. I think of this way: if it looks
like math, its probably computing how it forms. If it exhibits a great deal of
complexity that can just be because of how it interacts with itself like on a
cellular automata basis or a Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction-diffusion basis.
You can get a lot of complex and chaotic behavior from really simple rules.
They tell you how fast the system works and its clock speed basically, so you
can compare and relate that to your computer as well.

Nature is the highest programmer because nature can write pretty fluently in
just binary. All nature needs sometimes is something activating and
deactivating, which can be things living or dying next to each other. And when
nature arrives at a proof that a method is optimal, it arrives at it in a
probable amount of time/space. When programs are valid and the proof exists,
we have that we find it in nature since it gives a natural advantage to its
biological host. We do the same thing but way slower and it requires a bunch
of chalkboards and silicon sometimes.

The author, has a number of publications that are biological computation
models. You can substitute a computer made of billiard-balls for soldier
crabs.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Adamatzky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Adamatzky)

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blueadept111
Well, if mycelium can conduct electrical signals, then it's similar to brain
tissue, which seems like a more interesting analogy than saying it can perform
digital computation, in my opinion. Because then it raises the question of
what other qualities it has that might be similar to brain tissue, for
example, maybe exhibiting some form of perception, learning, and even
consciousness. The total amount of mycelial tissue is a lot more massive than
just the mushroom, the mushroom is the fruiting body, it's a small part of the
organism. Also, the mycelium interacts with tree roots, which can be viewed as
(one of many?) sensory inputs.

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dfischer
The idea that mycelium create a "planet internet" is quite interesting.

