What The Fungi? Scientists Create A Living Motherboard Made With Mushrooms

Researchers have been investigating how fungi can replace or benefit existing computer architectural components. Studies have recently been completed that show it is possible to implement basic logical circuits and basic electronic circuits with mycelium – the network of fungal threads usually hidden deep beneath the fruiting fungus body.

Founded in 2001, the Unconventional Computing Laboratory at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, is behind the headlining work. The lab certainly lives up to its name with its research involving fungi. At the university is the UK’s only so-called ‘wet lab’, which mixes chemicals, liquids, biological matter and electronics to search for breakthroughs in computing.

One of the repeating themes of the lab is looking at how nature computes, and elements of nature that can be used by humans to fit into practical computer systems. The lab also readily acknowledges the limits of classical computing with binary data. Biological computer components could break away from binary similarly to quantum computers and/or neuromorphic computers.

Andrew Adamatzky, director of the Unconventional Computing Laboratory, has enjoyed previous success in slime mold computers, but that’s another story. His more recent work has pioneered both fungal computing and fungal electronics.

Adamatzky found that mycelium reacts to electrical pulses similarly to brain neurons, and thus it is expected that this living organism could be used for artificial neural network based computers.

Spiking responses from the stimulated mycelium are more complex than the classical computing zeros and ones. A spike could be read as a one, and the absence of a spike as a zero, with the timing and spacing of the spikes read for greater dimensions or the representation of various logic gates.

It has also been discovered that different fungi have different geometries, which can compute different logical functions. The lab has been working with oyster fungi (Pleurotus djamor), ghost fungi (Omphalotus nidiformis), bracket fungi (Ganoderma resinaceum), Enoki fungi (Flammulina velutipes), split gill fungi (Schizophyllum commune) and caterpillar fungi (Cordyceps militari) during the feasibility studies.

The potential of fungi in computing goes further than as a medium for neuromorphic computing, or processing. Another feature the lab observed was that when mycelium points were stimulated, they could create a ‘memory’, with a similar underlying mechanism to how brain cells form habits. Thus, fungus shows it could potentially replace some of the most essential classical computer components, like the computer processor, memory, and storage.

We’ve already highlighted some of the advantages of fungal computing, like the way fungus is a good fit for neuromorphic computer architectures, but there are more. Probably one of the more excitingly futuristic qualities of a mycelium-based computer would be that, like the organism, it should be highly fault-tolerant and be able to self-regenerate.

Also, if there was ever the need for a fungus supercomputer, there have been fungus specimens recorded as large as 2,384 acres, or nearly four square miles in size (an armillaria ostoyae in Oregon).

The real question should be, does this fungi taste good on a pizza? Maybe add banana peppers too.

2 posted on 04/12/2023 7:53:30 PM PDT by OHPatriot (Si vis pacem, para bellum)

Attack of the Mushroom People

3 posted on 04/12/2023 7:58:21 PM PDT by Nifster ( I see puppy dogs in the clouds )

I give my word that I RAMmed a mushroom motherboard into my mouth and bit a byte from it, I PROMise.

4 posted on 04/12/2023 7:59:16 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)

It gives new meaning to the phrase “grey matter”.

5 posted on 04/12/2023 8:05:13 PM PDT by telescope115 (My feet are on the ground, and my head is in the stars. A Man, and proud of it!)

Lately everyone’s been worried about the threat of AI. But this offers something better than silicon chip based AI for scientists to study, because there’s no chance mushroom based AI could suddenly threaten us by morphing into something smarter than people, except democrats.

The UC Berkeley computer labs have come up with a Psylocybin-based fungal computer, but no matter what question it is asked the only output is bad poetry and op art.

7 posted on 04/12/2023 8:29:13 PM PDT by I-ambush (We watched the moment of defeat, played back over on the video screen. )

8 posted on 04/12/2023 8:52:05 PM PDT by dayglored (Strange Women Lying In Ponds Distributing Swords! Arthur Pendragon in 2024)

A gimmick that is useless. For every fungus, there is another that will destroy it. Did you know that Penicillium species have their own parasites—other Penicillium species! That goes for almost every othet fungus.
Imagine a “living” motherboard attacked by so many fungal species that it can no longer function. Just a gimmick, nothing more.

10 posted on 04/12/2023 10:01:14 PM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )

All it does is play Super Mario.

11 posted on 04/13/2023 2:39:42 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)

13 posted on 04/13/2023 7:51:19 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )

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