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Slime mould: The fundamental mechanisms of biological cognition

Vallverdú, Jordi; Castro, Oscar; Mayne, Richard; Talanov, Max; Levin, Michael; Baluška, Frantisek; Gunji, Yukio; Dussutour, Audrey; Zenil, Hector; Adamatzky, Andrew

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Authors

Jordi Vallverdú

Oscar Castro

Richard Mayne Richard.Mayne@uwe.ac.uk
Lecturer in Maths Supporting Science

Max Talanov

Michael Levin

Frantisek Baluška

Yukio Gunji

Audrey Dussutour

Hector Zenil



Abstract

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. The slime mould Physarum polycephalum has been used in developing unconventional computing devices for in which the slime mould played a role of a sensing, actuating, and computing device. These devices treated the slime mould as an active living substrate, yet it is a self-consistent living creature which evolved over millions of years and occupied most parts of the world, but in any case, that living entity did not own true cognition, just automated biochemical mechanisms. To “rehabilitate” slime mould from the rank of a purely living electronics element to a “creature of thoughts” we are analyzing the cognitive potential of P. polycephalum. We base our theory of minimal cognition of the slime mould on a bottom-up approach, from the biological and biophysical nature of the slime mould and its regulatory systems using frameworks such as Lyon's biogenic cognition, Muller, di Primio-Lengelerś modifiable pathways, Bateson's “patterns that connect” framework, Maturana's autopoietic network, or proto-consciousness and Morgan's Canon.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 20, 2017
Publication Date Mar 1, 2018
Deposit Date Jan 26, 2018
Publicly Available Date Jan 8, 2019
Journal BioSystems
Print ISSN 0303-2647
Electronic ISSN 1872-8324
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 165
Pages 57-70
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2017.12.011
Keywords cognition, consciousness, slime mould
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/872373
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2017.12.011
Contract Date Jan 26, 2018

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