The Unicellular Walker

What if intelligent cognition is just the execution of the right set of algorithms? Maybe the outwards appearance of intelligence is the result of the interaction of a set of complex rules…

Picture Credit: Larson, B. T., Garbus, J., Pollack, J. B., & Marshall, W. F. (2022). A unicellular walker controlled by a microtubule-based finite state machine. Biophysical Journal, 121(3), 117a.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece about Euplotes eurystomus and how its internal mechanical architecture acts as a state machine to allow this single-celled creature to behave in ways that seem “intelligent.” This week, Michelle Starr at ScienceAlert published a nice little…

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