Connectionists: Workshop 'Kinds of Minds from Organisms to Animats" Irvine California (at SAB 2024)

[Janet Wiles]

Workshop: "Kinds of minds from organisms to animats: introducing fungal mycelia as a new kid on the block"
Registration: Simulations of Adaptive Behavior (SAB 2024) https://sab2024.socsci.uci.edu/
Date: Monday 9th September 2024, 3.30 - 5.30pm
Venue: CalIT2 Auditorium, University of California Irvine, Irvine CA 92697 USA (in person only)

Abstract:
What can technology learn from different kinds of minds? 'Mind' is a short-cut here for biological decision-making systems that range from the nano minds of microbes navigating nutrient gradients, vegetative decisions of plants deploying chemical defences against insect raiders, clonal colonies of jelly fish, super organisms of social insects, distributed neural architectures of octopus, humans as individuals and diverse cultural groups, and more. Embodied intelligence encompasses memory, learning, decision making, awareness of the environment, social interaction and more.

To this diverse array, we add a new perspective, that of fungal mycelia, which can form vast, long-lived networks of hyphae that - like neurons - support modes of electrical communication and integration. Closer to animals than plants, fungi are a kingdom in their own right: Like animals, they are heterotrophs, obtaining their energy from other organisms, but they have external digestion and lack the movement abilities of animals. They are metabolic wizards, second only to bacteria, and some species, such as mycorrhizal fungi are morphologically heterogeneous, using acids to dissolve minerals from rocks in one location and supporting living tree roots in symbiotic relationships in another. Their embodiment differs from animals, plants and bacteria, and their survival requires different decisions. Some species are skilled carbon and nutrient traders, adjusting their trades with saplings across their life cycle and trading with different species in different seasons.
Their inter-species cooperation is supported by long life spans and large size - some are estimated to be thousands of years old and hundreds of hectares in extent. While the importance of mycorrhizal fungi is widely recognised in ecology, they are less well known and little modelled in computational disciplines.

Fungi clearly have decisions to make. What can we learn from considering the ensemble of such abilities as a 'mycorrhizal mind'? Using our working definition, the workshop will discuss mycelial networks as a novel kind of embodied intelligence. The workshop will introduce fungal lifestyles and mycelial networks, and discuss interpretations of their structure, problem-solving abilities, and long-range electrical communication.

This is an exploratory and participatory workshop. Participants from all disciplines are invited to present case studies of interesting and unusual minds, across the spectrum of biological and technological systems and draw out their lessons for animats and other technology designs.

Contact Janet Wiles j.wiles at uq.edu.au<mailto:j.wiles at uq.edu.au> for more details or to ask about presenting in the workshop.

Best wishes,
Janet

Professor Janet Wiles
she/hers
UQ Researcher<researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/13>
Human Centred Computing Discipline<https://itee.uq.edu.au/human-centred-computing>
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The University of Queensland | Brisbane Qld 4072 Australia | CRICOS code: 00025B

Human-centred AI Projects<https://itee.uq.edu.au/research/human-centred-computing/human-centred-ai>:
  Where is the Human in HCAI? Insights from developer priorities and user experiences<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107617> | 2-min video<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-lE_otXKq0&list=PLsxuArSpI1zg6AlaEwJVIfbBXTStAuGye&index=1>
  Enlarging the model of the human at the heart of HCAI: A social self-determination model of AI system impact<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2023.101025> | 2-min video<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEGLcKTOi9w&list=PLsxuArSpI1zg6AlaEwJVIfbBXTStAuGye&index=2>

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