And no brain needed!
Andrew Adamatzky
The slime mold Physarum polycephalum, in action
...The United States is not alone in having an interstate highway system that gets the slime mold’s seal of approval. We have done similar experiments with various colleagues, using slime mold to approximate the highway systems of Britain, Mexico, the Netherlands, Canada and Brazil.
For all of these countries, we found that the slime mold network matched, at least partly, the network of human-made transport systems, though the closeness of fit varied from country to country. The United States highway system, for instance, is less slime-mold-like than that of Canada...
Relevant video here.
Evolution or Intelligent Design?
Decadence on a grand scale. You have to wonder why so many paper pushers are employed, when they can't even keep track of 300 new vehicles? Having to find out from an obscure magazine? No wonder the West is going broke. Between hordes of "public servants with insane benefits, Mayors who can't stop spending others money.
A huge greedy monster of a government on all levels.
Yeah - that shows that our Canadian slime holds are not as easily bought as American slime holds. Or whatever.
This riveting discovery should be taught in all our schools.
I for one salute our new slime mold overlords!
To slime or not to slime? That is the question!
probably indicates that Canadian roads are more determined by government interferance than economic need. take bridges to nowhere and docks and boardwalks from nowhere to nowhere in Nfld as an example.
the lack of a road to Ft. Mac. is a reverse example .
I bet we paid good taxpayer money to find that out... (face palm)
Okay, so slime has survival techniques.
So?
We have thousands of people working in government transport departments, and they can do no better than slime mold :-) You have to wonder; I'd say that's a great reason not to have state plan anything at all.
Not really shocked that interstates resemble the slime networks.....the shortest distance... and priority of cities/nodes/bait....
In Canada, due to the vast distances, especially on the Great Plains/Big Nothin', shortest distance makes sense to connect urban areas founded on waterways. In Ontariario Governor Simcoe's road now #2 was a blend of surveyed directness and adoption of the more sensible parts of the old "Detroit Track/Old Stage Road.
Then in the '50's the Interstate mentality inspired the 400 series....The QEW was a '20's/'30's creation like Germany's autobahn....
Beneath Britain's Motorways and the Europastrass of western Europe lie the Roman road sytem. Romans took a perverse pride in direct routes rather than ridge lines/ developed animal trails.
To a degree the modern highways of Britain, Mexico, the Netherlands, Canada and Brazil are road duplicates of the railway sytems....basically restarts with a clean slate.
The efficient destruction of German rail lines in retreat was nullified by the autobahn...allowing Allied invasion down superhighways.
Operation Barbarossa was hindered by the de facto non-existance of a Russian road network...and an incompatible rail guage.
During the COLD WAR, trains did cross the iron curtain...after a slight delay as the trains were lifted car by car, by crane, from one line to another and different under-carriage....a real thrill in a passenger car....
Driving around for a living I long suspected who ever planed the road system must be as dumb as a Lobotomized Ameba. Looking at this report shows that I gave them urban planners too much credit.
No, seriously, this is an interesting research area. Slime moulds, or other 'collective organisms', ie, organisms that work, not as individual units but as a whole, have a 'collective mind'. As such, these collective make intelligent and productive decisions.
It isn't like our individual brain and mind; it's an intelligent, rational process of the whole. There are various types: 'quorum sensing, efficiency sensing. There's something referred to as 'root brains', where plant decision-making takes place.
Essentially, all that's required for this 'mind' to operate is a metabolism, ie, a biochemical reality. Then, a spatial and temporal location, where the organism as a collective can 'sense' the environment. Essentially, this isn't an individual stimulus and response, but a collective cohesive decision-making entity.
The collective operates as a complex network, of nodes or hubs (sites of interaction) and links or connections for communication. Complex networks are made up of nodes and links; therefore, they do appear similar.
I'll grant that this is of some scientific interest but I'm more interested in complex beings.
So...if we put some slime mould in Windsor and another in Detroit....it would commit suicide?
"Evolution or Intelligent Design?"
Annexation or Eminent Domain?
Ablation 'springs' to mind.
And not only is it intelligent, it leaves generous gratuities in restaurants.
Oh, I know what you're thinking: ain't it funny how slime tips away?
Heh, @ET Culture... orculture?
For everyone laughing: there is huge, huge money in being able to reliably produce optimal transport networks for things. Any research that can reliably churn out improved designs for that is going to make somebody very, very rich, because the Travelling Salesman Problem remains unsolved. If Mother Nature's spent a few million years creating a fungus that can do this for us, then crank up the petrie dishes.
A more interesting experiment would be to see how the molds handle paths that are not all equally expensive to traverse.
No, seriously, this is an interesting research area. Slime moulds, or other 'collective organisms', ie, organisms that work, not as individual units but as a whole, have a 'collective mind'. As such, these collective make intelligent and productive decisions.
It isn't like our individual brain and mind; it's an intelligent, rational process of the whole. There are various types: 'quorum sensing, efficiency sensing. There's something referred to as 'root brains', where plant decision-making takes place.
Essentially, all that's required for this 'mind' to operate is a metabolism, ie, a biochemical reality. Then, a spatial and temporal location, where the organism as a collective can 'sense' the environment. Essentially, this isn't an individual stimulus and response, but a collective cohesive decision-making entity.
The collective operates as a complex network, of nodes or hubs (sites of interaction) and links or connections for communication. Complex networks are made up of nodes and links; therefore, they do appear similar.
Sorry - no idea why it double-posted.
But it is an interesting, absolutely fascinating area of research - the work being done in biochemistry and plant biology and biological collectives is incredible. It points to a capacity for intelligent, ie, functional, decision-making in systems that don't have an individual brain.
The subject of slime mold immediately brought to mind a mental image of Obama's White House Staff but then the theme to Ghostbusters started and I realized that America doesn't have to wait until November elections to get rid of their problem.
The US interstate highway system was designed to move the US military throughout the country in case of invasion.
Our highways were also designed for the purpose of using them as landing strips for aircraft.
It points to a capacity for intelligent, ie, functional, decision-making in systems that don't have an individual brain.
Kinda like academic institutions. And all those other institutions that try to tell us what's good for us.
I guess that's why they're still just slime.
I was watching the video and it reminded me of how Liberals go after public money.
OK, Physarum polycephalum is my new favorite heterotroph now.
What doesn't it have going for it ?
Re: ET at May 13, 2012 6:13 PM
I think this best sums up my reaction to your post:
http://i.imgur.com/gLM65.gif
I wonder if you could teach civil servants to do what the slime molds can do.
I have to admit that it does sound more promising than the thing with the duck insemination.
Here's another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czk4xgdhdY4
If it's so smart, why doesn't it just go over the walls?
What do the slime molds say the route of the Keystone Pipeline should be?
Do they agree with the concensus emitting from Obama's belly button lint?
Then there's "The Wisdom of Crowds":
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wisdom-Crowds-James-Surowiecki/dp/0385721706
Mark
Ottawa
Mark - thanks for the link. Collective decision-making is an important area of scientific research. It's a major area in biochemistry, biology - and in economics and even societal organization.
To quote from your link: "If four basic conditions are met, a crowd's "collective intelligence" will produce better outcomes than a small group of experts, Surowiecki says, even if members of the crowd don't know all the facts or choose, individually, to act irrationally. "Wise crowds" need (1) diversity of opinion; (2) independence of members from one another; (3) decentralization; and (4) a good method for aggregating opinions."
This actually shows the strength of democracy over an authoritarian model. But in the less complex organisms, such as slime and various bacteria, the agenda still has to be: a positive functionality for the organism to exist. So, it's fascinating to examine how a collective at this basic level accomplishes this task.
If crowds were wise everyone would be billionaires.
No, fiddle, you are using a mechanical theory, and incorrectly viewing a collective as just made up of individual separate bits.
The billion belongs to the collective and individuals in such a 'Set' are not relevant. So, a nest of ants is successful as that collective rather than due to any individual ant.
Same with a society; the billion (let's say technological advances) belongs to the collective not to each individual.
Same with a society; the billion (let's say technological advances) belongs to the collective not to each individual.
The clever professor says, as we pay royalties to Edison and Bell...
sigh. fiddle - do you use the technological advances of Edison and Bell? Are their technological ideas and the advances made by others to them, part of the collective reality?
Think. Don't just react with anger and bitterness.
To be fair, Edison and Bell were both overrated hacks.
The 'wisdom of crowds' nonsense worked out well in the USSR and Nazi Germany.
Democracies are now getting in on the act. Fortunately neither we, or the U.S. are a democracy. We have a better foundation than the wisdom of crowds. The Constitutions of both recognize from whence all wisdom flows.
It's interesting that James Surowiecki describes his wisdom of crowds as kind of 'average opinion'.
“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein
fiddle - both Canada and the US are democracies. The term refers to how decisions are made, which is, by a majority vote. But this 'how' operates within a decision-making infrastructure- which are the rules of legislation. In the US, it's a constitutional republic, in Canada, it's a constitutional monarchy.
Don't think that the term 'democracy' refers to a political system with no constitution or laws. No such thing. The term means only how a decision, within the rules, is arrived at.
As for 'crowd wisdom' - yes, populations always tend to reduce to the LCD (lowest common denominator) but this LCD refers to the energy content of a system. If it's high, then the LCD is high and can be understood as 'filled with knowledge'; if it's low...then...
So, a collective population can, if the energy content is high, function as a very 'wise' system.
...both Canada and the US are democracies. The term refers to how decisions are made, which is, by a majority vote.
Really? Ever heard of the Electoral College in the U.S.? Or the Senate in Canada?
Right you are, fiddle! It's a majority vote in the Electoral College, according to the rules of that system. And a majority vote in the Senate, according to the rules of the Senate!
You finally seem to be understanding it! That's great.
So, within the structural rules of each legislative body, decisions are made according to the rules of that body (ie, who are valid members, when they can vote, etc) - and the vote is by majority. So, now you understand how a legislative system operates. Great!
Don't tell me: when they made that slime, they broke the mold!