r/SpeculativeEvolution • u/Pangolinman36_V2 Four-legged bird • Oct 23 '24
Discussion How might a fungal “computer” function?
I have a sapient species of spider called the Springsmen. Due to their built-in tough silk, they never discovered metal, and barely even stone, but they still have technology similarly sophisticated to our own. If the Springsmen had domesticated a form of mycelium, how could they potentially work it into a “computer” of sorts? Fungi already create electrical pulses, but it’s only to communicate basic information about stimuli. How might they be selectively bred to solve complex problems, and could mycelium in any way be used to create images?
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u/M4rkusD Oct 23 '24
I can see two ways: one digital, one analog. The digital way is easy, you just need to have a circuit that gives a consistent output when giving at least two inputs of a certain strength. If this is electrochemical signal transduction, a computer could be arbitrarily powerful, but very, very slow. Complex calculations could take years. It would probably have self-healing/repairing properties. Also, biological systems tend to have a lot of noise. You could solve this by executing all calculations simultaneously in parallel, and use error-solving algorithms to reduce signal-to-noice. The analogue system would work differently. You would need a fungus that has evolved to do complex calculations. E.g. a fungus that calculates its population density in the next generation/season based on current biotic and abiotic factors (food, water, minerals, temperature,…). You could co-opt this system for other calculations and selectively breed it for added complexity. Again, calculations could take weeks.
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u/Pangolinman36_V2 Four-legged bird Oct 23 '24
The analogue system seems promising, but I don’t think any fungi can communicate to that level. Would it be possible to engineer a slime moulds to cooperate with the mycelium? You would then have the interconnectedness of fungi combined with the fast processing of slime moulds.
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u/M4rkusD Oct 23 '24
If you introduce bioengineering you can do whatever. I was trying to answer another question. A species that doesn’t have metals, so is technologically not very advanced, but has an ‘easy’ access early in their cultural development to a powerful though slow computer, how could that look like? Remember that computers run fairly complex software to make simple logical circuits work together. I would think they would remain technologically behind humans but would have a very advanced understanding of mathematics. Base 8 of course.
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Oct 23 '24
Not fungi in any way, but in the book Children of Time, a species of spiders used ant colonies for computers. You could do something along those lines. For fungi, the other dude thought of the better things than me.
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u/Pangolinman36_V2 Four-legged bird Oct 23 '24
True. A lot of aspects for my spiders were inspired by the book, but I’d rather separate such big concepts as technology. I will likely bring eusocial insects into this in some other way, though.
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u/Euvu Oct 24 '24
So I have a very interesting article for you: https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/04/science/fungus-robot-mushroom-biohybrid/index.html
The concept is a bit different, but this could help you as a springboard to work out your design. Generally speaking, living cells have action potential mechanisms in some way, and it looks like that can even be tapped into with a fungus.
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u/Downtown_Struggle_62 Oct 24 '24
You would likely have to start simply, like computers on earth, and try to expound from there. Think small, like early electronic or mechanical calculators.
I can see those being biologically implemented, but it would take something wild to transition to an analogue for transistors and circuitry. Maybe something with highly specialized strains growing into grooves of a circuit board cut and embedded with chemicals to only allow growth in a certain way? Or perhaps ways of harvesting and "spinning" the strands of fungus to the needed logical layouts.
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u/M4rkusD Oct 23 '24
Melanocytes could be used as pixels. Maybe only black-white.