How a Brainless Slime Mold Outpaces Supercomputers ⚡ экспресс
The computational potential of aneural organisms had not been previously assessed. This study investigates Physarum polycephalum—a single-celled, multinucleate amoeboid capable of complex problem-solving without neurons. Using growth dynamics data from two strains under various conditions and morphological parameters (area, perimeter, roundness, fractal dimension), the Margolus–Levitin theorem, which limits computation speed by available energy, was applied to calculate the upper bound of logical operations. Hydromechanical, chemical, kinetic, and quantum-optical degrees of freedom were considered. Accounting for the spatial distribution of ATP and the examined regions, the slime mold is shown to perform up to ~10³⁶ logical operations in 24 hours, with the count increasing linearly in a non-equilibrium steady state. The proposed approach lays the groundwork for comparing the computational capabilities of living systems that harness both classical and quantum degrees of freedom.
Physarum polycephalum is a tiny brainless slime mold, resembling spilled lemonade. But this blob, living in humid environments, can solve mazes. Its secret lies in a unique way of processing information: it uses fluid flows and chemical signals, turning its entire body into a kind of liquid processor. Every movement, every reaction becomes a computational step.
Physicists applied the physical limit of computation speed, linked to energy, to this organism. It turned out that in a day, this "slime" performs up to 10³⁶ operations — many orders of magnitude more than all of humanity's computers combined. An amazing detail: computational power scales with size — as if each new millimeter adds a separate processing unit, right during movement.
This approach allows comparing the "mental" abilities of all carbon-based life — from bacteria to plants — and even to peer into the future of artificial intelligence. Perhaps swaying colonies of microorganisms in the wind, or creatures gliding along the bottom, are also conducting silent computations that we never suspected.
🎯 In a single gram of this slime mold lies computational power comparable to thousands of supercomputers — and all without a single transistor.