Fungi as Turing automata with oracles

Schumann, Andrew; Adamatzky, Andrew; Król, Jerzy; Goles, Eric

Abstract

In the article, we aim to understand the responses of living organisms, exemplified by mycelium, to external stimuli through the lens of a Turing machine with an oracle (oTM). To facilitate our exploration, we show that a variant of an oTM is a cellular automaton with an oracle, which aptly captures the intricate behaviours observed in organisms such as fungi, shedding light on their dynamic interactions with their environment. This interaction reveals forms of reflection that can be interpreted as a minimum volume of consciousness. Thus, in our study, we interpret consciousness as a mathematical phenomenon when an arithmetic function is arbitrarily modified. We call these modifications the hybridization of behaviour. oTMs are the mathematical language of this hybridization.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 28, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Oct 16, 2024
• Publication Date: Oct 31, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 14, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 14, 2024
• Journal: Royal Society Open Science
• Electronic ISSN: 2054-5703
• Publisher: Royal Society, The
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 10
• Article Number: 240768
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240768
• Keywords: automata, oracle, Turing machine, fungi
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13294782