On creativity of slime mould

Abstract

Slime mould Physarum polycephalum is large single cell with intriguingly smart behaviour. The slime mould shows outstanding abilities to adapt its protoplasmic network to varying environmental conditions. The slime mould can solve tasks of computational geometry, image processing, logics and arithmetics when data are represented by configurations of attractants and repellents. We attempt to map behavioural patterns of slime onto the cognitive control vs. schizotypy spectrum phase space and thus interpret slime mould’s activity in terms of creativity.

Keywords:

• creativity
• slime mould
• unconventional computing
• biological intelligence

Acknowledgement

AA and JJ acknowledge support by the EU research project Physarum Chip: Growing Computers from Slime Mould (FP7 ICT Ref. 316366).

Notes

1. ‘Actant’ is Bruno Latour’s term for a source of action; an actant can be human or not, or, most likely, a combination of both. It implies no special motivation of human individual actors, nor of humans in general (Bennett 2010; Latour 1996).

2. A schizotypy is a range of personality characteristics ranging from normal to schizophrenia.