
The Beautiful Intelligence of Bacteria and Other Microbes - nature24
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-beautiful-intelligence-of-bacteria-and-other-microbes-20171113/
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sndean
To me, the most interesting part about those biofilms are why they're so
wrinkly: Those folds form channels and Bacillus moves water and nutrients
through them
([http://www.pnas.org/content/110/3/848/F1.expansion.html](http://www.pnas.org/content/110/3/848/F1.expansion.html)).

After binge watching Stranger Things 2, that seems a little bit more like
science fiction.

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harveywi
The word "intelligence" is thrown around without anyone bothering to define
it. Why are stigmergic/reactive fluctuations of these biofilms considered
intelligence?

I prefer the Jeff Hawkins definition: Intelligence is the ability to make good
predictions. Biofilms and other stigmergic systems such as ant colonies do not
seem to fit this definition.

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visarga
Intelligence is the ability to take decisions that lead to maximum utility,
not just "good decisions". Utility is the main currency of decisions.

I found this article very interesting because it showcases the
exploration/exploitation dilemma of reinforcement learning. Even a bacteria
colony is a RL agent, reacting to external events in a useful way.

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_alias
Utility being propagation of the species?

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AnimalMuppet
But by that definition, _every_ not-yet-extinct species is intelligent. Or at
least, every species that responds in any way to external environment in order
to enhance survival and reproduction... which is pretty much every species.

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opportune
You're assuming a binary extant/extinct dichotomy. That may work on the level
of an individual species, but not on the colony level. The colony is simply
attempting to propagate itself. So the utility at a given time could be given
by something that measures the current size of the colony, the size of its
descendants, and some estimate of how much each colony will further propagate.

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AnimalMuppet
Fine, but it's still a bogus use of the word "intelligence".

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zaarn
Slime molds again. Probably nature's most fascinating... thing(?). IIRC the
name slime mold doesn't have much to do with actual mold. They're a seperate
thing and behave pretty abnormal compared to most other lifeforms like virii,
fungi or bacteria.

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Cacti
The pictures here are amazing.

