A Computer Made of 'Beoseot' to Save the World? [Tech Talk]

Fungi Including Mushrooms Also Transmit Electrical Signals
Using This Trait to Implement 'Algorithms'
More Energy Efficient Than Silicon Computers

The biggest problem with artificial intelligence (AI) processors is their enormous energy consumption and the resulting heat management. In fact, the power consumption of AI data centers has already become a subject of controversy in several countries.

Mushroom. [Image source=Pixabay]

Is a more efficient and eco-friendly computer truly impossible? Perhaps 'beoseot' (mushrooms) could be the savior to solve the computing dilemma.

Intelligence Can Be Created with 'Beoseot'

A robot operated by a 'fungi' computer invented at Cornell University in the United States. [Image source=YouTube capture]

The mushrooms we commonly eat are actually fungi. Among fungi, they are mycelia with caps and stalks. While mushrooms can be eaten, research is ongoing to develop them as 'biological computers' that could replace silicon computer chips.

Last year, the University of the West of England's Unconventional Computing Laboratory (UCL) in the UK succeeded in running computer programs using fungi. Meanwhile, Cornell University in the US recently made headlines by creating a multi-legged walker that is half mushroom and half robot. This robot uses mushrooms as its control system.

How can mushrooms operate computer programs? Historically, biologists and computer engineers have considered that the way fungi, including mushrooms, operate is similar to computers. The fungi we commonly see, such as mushrooms and molds, are actually only a small part of the entire fungal organism.

The mycelium extends its roots into the soil or tree trunks, forming a vast network, with each terminal of the network communicating through tiny electrical signals. This method is similar to computer networks. [Image source='One earth' homepage capture]

Mycelia usually extend underground to form vast networks, and the terminals of these networks interact through tiny electrical signals. This 'fungal network' is similar to how computer chips form networks and create program logic. It can be called a 'natural computer' shaped by evolutionary pressure over billions of years.

The advantage of natural computers is that they are far more energy-efficient than human-made silicon computers. This is evident just by looking at the human brain. To catch up with human intelligence, machine intelligence is expected to require building enormous artificial neural networks that dwarf today's large language models, necessitating massive data centers. In contrast, the amount of energy the human brain needs throughout a lifetime is ridiculously small compared to that.

A Massive Underground Network... Could It Be Used as a 'Natural Computer'?

Slime molds are colonial eukaryotes found on decaying wood stumps and similar environments, with an appearance resembling fungi. [Image source=Real Science YouTube]

Attempts are also being made to create computers using slime molds, single-celled organisms similar to fungi. Slime molds are simple eukaryotes that grow on decaying wood stumps and move slowly in groups like colonies to find nutrients.

Slime molds constantly extend their tentacles or 'feet' toward the ground as they move. They extend their feet more in directions rich in nutrients and gradually reduce and eliminate feet extended toward nutrient-poor areas. This method allows them not only to move their entire body but also to find specific directions.

'Pathfinding' is one of the most basic functions of intelligence. Although slime molds are extremely simple organisms, they form their own pathfinding algorithms using the simple command of 'extend the body where nutrients exist and eliminate it where they do not.' Scientists expect that by utilizing these characteristics of slime molds, it will be possible to implement massive biological computer networks capable of solving more complex problems.

In fact, in 2021, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) demonstrated that slime molds can be used to create 'memory devices.' Each 'bundle' of slime mold that senses and extends toward nutrient-rich areas can serve as an information storage unit, much like the memory devices in actual computers.

By effectively utilizing these traits, someday fungi or slime molds might be able to handle much more complex computations. The computers and semiconductors we widely use today started as very simple vacuum tube computing devices and evolved into logic chips with billions of transistors. Perhaps fungi will undergo a similar evolutionary process and acquire intelligence.