INTERFERENCE SPORES Research
2023
Research
Rethinking AI though mycelium networks and meditations on becoming Octopus.
By Shira Wachsmann , John Wild
Numerous mycelia communicate environmental changes through their extensive underground networks, employing intricate patterns of electrical activity. This workshop delved into alternative perspectives on AI through practical experiments involving mycelium cultivation. It utilised affordable, accessible equipment to link with mycelium's neural-like spikes in electrical activity, contemplating how mushrooms could act as tangible indicators of the intensity of environmental changes. Additionally, it questioned central evolutionary concepts within the ongoing discourse on Artificial Intelligence.
Workshop participants created their own seeded mycelium network while asking the questions;
By Shira Wachsmann , John Wild
Numerous mycelia communicate environmental changes through their extensive underground networks, employing intricate patterns of electrical activity. This workshop delved into alternative perspectives on AI through practical experiments involving mycelium cultivation. It utilised affordable, accessible equipment to link with mycelium's neural-like spikes in electrical activity, contemplating how mushrooms could act as tangible indicators of the intensity of environmental changes. Additionally, it questioned central evolutionary concepts within the ongoing discourse on Artificial Intelligence.
Workshop participants created their own seeded mycelium network while asking the questions;
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How does mycelium's pluralistic symbiotic relationship with other species challenge the application of universal and binary logics in digital AI?
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Can we develop environmentally sustainable computing whose logic and flows of information work with and through living biological systems?
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Is it feasible to develop AI algorithms that facilitate symbiotic co-evolution with nature?
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Is a sustainable AI based on bio-computing viable?
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Could the subtle boundaries between artificial and natural worlds hold keys to inspire a revaluation of our entangled relationship with technology and the ecosystems we inhabit?
