This article is about the analysis of computation in natural organisms. For computers composed of biomolecules, see
Biological computing. For computation inspired by biology, see
Bio-inspired computing. For data analysis and mathematical modeling in biology, see
Computational biology.
According to Dominique Chu, Mikhail Prokopenko, and J. Christian J. Ray, "the most important class of
natural computers can be found in
biological systems that perform computation on multiple levels. From molecular and cellular
information processing networks to
ecologies, economies and brains, life computes. Despite ubiquitous agreement on this fact going back as far as
von Neumann automata and
McCulloch–Pitts neural nets, we so far lack principles to understand rigorously how computation is done in living, or active, matter".[12]
Logical circuits can be built with
slime moulds.[13]Distributed systems experiments have used them to approximate motorway graphs.[14] The slime mould Physarum polycephalum is able to compute high-quality approximate solutions to the
Traveling Salesman Problem, a combinatorial test with exponentially increasing complexity, in
linear time.[15] Fungi such as
basidiomycetes can also be used to build logical circuits. In a proposed fungal computer, information is represented by spikes of electrical activity, a computation is implemented in a
mycelium network, and an
interface is realized via fruit bodies.[16]
^Adamatzky A, Akl S, Alonso-Sanz R, Van Dessel W, Ibrahim Z, Ilachinski A, et al. (2013-06-01). "Are motorways rational from slime mould's point of view?". International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems. 28 (3): 230–248.
arXiv:1203.2851.
doi:
10.1080/17445760.2012.685884.
ISSN1744-5760.
S2CID15534238.